On Tuesday 21 August, EU Commissioner for Climate Action Miguel Arias Cañete told the German press agency DPA of his wish to put to member states, during the next Environment Council on 9 October, the question of upward review of objectives for reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 2030. This would increase reduction from 40% to 45% compared with 1990 levels.
“I intend to put this question to member states in the near future”, the commissioner told the DPA. He went on to add that the new objective would be attainable on condition that member states implement the new objectives with regards energy efficiency and renewable energy.
Anna-Kaisa Itkonen, the spokesperson for the Commission on climate action and energy, put the commissioner’s proposals into perspective that same day, pointing out that the member states and the EP agreed, in June, as part of the regulation relating to governance at EU level for energy/climate policies, to fix the minimum share of renewable energies in the EU’s energy mix at 32%, and the energy efficiency objectives at 32.5% (see EUROPE 12045).
“According to our preliminary analysis, this raising of ambition (...) would enable the EU to reduce its emissions by at least 45% by 2030”, Itkonen stated. This has raised questions as to whether the EU might want to “formally” increase the level of this national determined contribution which is also part of the Paris Agreement, she added. This point should be discussed with the member states during the Environment Council in October, with a view to the COP24 scheduled to be held in Katowice in December.
The commissioner had already stated its ambition during the second ministerial conference on climate action end June (see EUROPE 12045). Such a stance echoes that taken by several member states. On 25 June this year, 14 environment ministers had called for a “zero emissions” strategy to be established by 2050 (see EUROPE 12048). (Original version in French by Pascal Hansens)