The main challenge for the Environment Council on Thursday 18 September was to adopt an EU ‘declaration of intent’ setting a range for reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 2035 (compared to 1990). After more than six hours of discussions, the EU27 have approved a text that takes stock of the EU’s climate policy and sets a range for reducing greenhouse gas emissions of between 66.25% and 72.5%.
This declaration is a temporary solution devised by the Danish Presidency of the EU Council to ensure that the EU does not arrive empty-handed at the UN Secretary-General’s Climate Summit in New York on 24 September.
The deadline set by the Secretariat of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) cannot be met by the European Union.
The EU was to submit its ‘Nationally Determined Contribution’ (NDC), including a 2035 target. This was to deviate directly from the final climate target of a 90% reduction in emissions by 2040, proposed by the European Commission on 2 July (see EUROPE 13672/2) and on which the EU Council has not yet reached agreement (see other news).
“Even if we haven’t quite concluded the discussion here, the direction to take is clear, and that’s something we can be very proud of”, said the European Commissioner for Climate Action, Wopke Hoekstra, at a press conference.
Europe will not arrive empty-handed. The Danish Climate Minister, Lars Aagaard, has assured us that the EU’s final NDC will be presented before the start of COP30 in Belém (Brazil) in November. “The rest of the world can count on Europe”, he told the press, before calling on the other parties to the Paris Agreement to assume their responsibilities as well.
The range that the Danish Presidency is proposing to communicate in the EU’s ‘declaration of intent’ has changed very little from the previous proposal of between 66.3% and 72.5% emission reductions.
This takes account of a linear trajectory between the EU’s 2030 objective (-55%) and the objective of carbon neutrality in 2050, as well as the more ambitious trajectory between the 2030 objective and the target of a 90% reduction in emissions in 2040.
The range as such was again the subject of debate on 16 September at a meeting of ambassadors to the EU (Coreper) (see EUROPE 13710/1). On the basis of an initial text proposed by the Danish Presidency, discussions between Ministers dragged on until an amended version was reached on 18 September.
For some countries wishing to set an ambitious climate target, it was not credible to present an indicative range on the international stage, while other nations, such as China, intend to present a fixed target. For some Member States, on the contrary, a range represented the appropriate solution, pending the presentation of a real NDC before the start of COP30.
“I’ve always encouraged my colleagues to opt for a range. (...) Even with (this), we will remain the most ambitious of all the parties to the Paris Agreement and the Kyoto Protocol”, declared Poland’s Secretary of State for Climate, Krzystof Bolesta, on his arrival at the EU Council.
A declaration of intent without prejudice to the 2040 target. On the other hand, some countries that were opposed to the 2040 climate target, such as Hungary, felt that the high end of the range should not be mentioned, as it was considered unrealistic.
“Until we have taken a decision for 2040, we don’t want anything that formally determines what we will decide later, because we still have a lot of work to do to discuss the targets for 2040”, said Anikó Raisz, Hungarian Secretary of State for the Environment.
However, the Danish Presidency’s provisional agreement text retains the indication that the ‘declaration of intent’ is intended to be “without prejudice to the final agreement on the EU’s 2040 climate target in European climate legislation”.
There were also lengthy discussions on the background to the proposed range, with some countries calling for stronger references to compliance with the Paris Agreement and for discussions to be referred back to the European Council.
To see the declaration of intent: https://aeur.eu/f/ihs (Original version in French by Nithya Paquiry and Pauline Denys)