On Friday 9 October, the German Presidency of the Council of the European Union sent the Member States a third draft compromise proposal on the ‘climate law’, a proposal for a European regulation to enshrine the objective of climate neutrality by 2050 in EU legislation and to establish a path towards this goal (see EUROPE 12439/2).
Addressing the issue of the new climate target for 2030, the main bone of contention between Member States (see EUROPE 12572/10), the German Presidency stresses that “a number of delegations support increasing the 2030 target to the level proposed by the Commission”, i.e., a net reduction in emissions of at least 55% (see EUROPE 12562/1).
However, it adds that other countries “ask for further information on the impacts at Member State level”.
They also insist that any increase in the existing target must be approved “at the highest political level”, i.e., at the level of heads of state or government, before it can be incorporated into the ‘climate law’, the German document points out.
While some MEPs such as Pascal Canfin (Renew Europe, France) or Bas Eickhout (Greens/EFA, the Netherlands) are calling on Member States to reach a political agreement on the 2030 target at the meeting of environment ministers on 23 October, this issue could finally be decided on 10-11 December at the EU summit (see EUROPE 12575/20).
In addition, with regard to the changes compared to the previous German compromise draft (see EUROPE 12567/10), it should be noted that Berlin has decided to maintain the reference to the collective achievement of the climate neutrality objective by 2050.
Following the position adopted by the European Parliament last week (see EUROPE 12576/1), some EU countries want the climate neutrality target to apply equally to each Member State, not just to the Union as a whole.
The EU27 will debate the EU’s climate ambition for 2030 at the EU summit on Thursday 15 and Friday 16 October.
See the draft compromise: https://bit.ly/3iW1Dep (Original version in French by Damien Genicot)