EU commission's climate director general Kurt Vandenberghe suggested today that the commission's proposal next month for a 2040 net greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction could offer more flexibility, without providing details.
The 90pc target, compared with 1990 levels, will "hopefully" be agreed with the "necessary flexibilities", he added. He did not say what a more flexible 2040 goal would entail.
The proposal to update to the European Climate Law with a headline GHG target for 2040 is due on 2 July.
This will be followed up, in 2026, with legal proposals detailing the post-2030 climate architecture, including a revision of the bloc's emissions trading system (ETS) directive.
Vandenberghe pointed to the need to ensure ETS revenues from heavy industries go back "at least partially" for their sector's decarbonisation. The commission is also seeking to reassure people that it is "sufficiently pragmatic" about moving to a 90pc GHG cut target, Vanderberghe said.
Centre-right EPP's Radan Kanev also wants an "ambitious and realistic" 2040 target around 90pc. But the Bulgarian member of the European parliament notes changes in political majorities for climate action compared to when the bloc's 55pc GHG reduction target and other Green Deal objectives were set for 2030.
"At present, we don't have such a majority in parliament," Kanev said. He indicated that few EU states have a local majority for the 90pc target for 2040 and public opinion in Europe was "far from" such a position.
The commission is "very attentive" as to fears arising from the extension of the ETS to road transport and heating fuels, Vanderberghe said. "We would not be well served with an ETS extension that leads suddenly to peaks in carbon prices," he said.
The commission is also eyeing the agri-food sector for the next decade, which, Vandenberghe said is "notoriously difficult, sensitive." "This is not climate against agri-food, this must be climate with the agri-food sector," he said.
The European Scientific Advisory Board on Climate Change (ESABCC) last week called for a 90–95pc domestic reduction target for 2040. A lower target would undermine the bloc's sustainability, long-term competitiveness and energy security, the scientists said.
Vanderberghe talked of more flexibility and less prescriptiveness in terms of targets, sub-targets, and detailed rules for 2040. "We may have been overly prescriptive in our framework for the emission reduction target by 2030," he said. He also reiterated the need for carbon removals to achieve net zero by 2050.
If ongoing work on the implementation of Paris Agreement's Article 6 works well, "we think we should not deprive ourselves of the possibility of working with international credits as part of our 90pc target," Vanderberghe said.
