On Thursday 23 October in Strasbourg, the European Parliament adopted a resolution ahead of COP30 in Belém (Brazil), calling on the EU to continue to set ambitious goals for its climate policy and to adopt an ambitious target for reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 2035.
The resolution was prepared and approved by the Committee on Environment (ENVI) on 6 October (see EUROPE 13725/18).
The 2035 target had to be presented by 23 September in the EU’s ’nationally determined contribution’ (NDC). The resolution regrets that the EU Council failed to reach agreement on the EU’s 2040 target (see EUROPE 13711/8).
The European Parliament therefore calls for the adoption of a “science-based” greenhouse gas emissions reduction target for 2040, which will enable the 2035 target expected before COP30 to be calculated directly.
At the time of writing, a discussion between European leaders was taking place on the evening of 23 October on the 2040 climate target, before potentially continuing at ministerial level on 4 November (see other news). Several countries make support for this objective conditional on guarantees for European competitiveness (see EUROPE 13736/1).
On 22 October, during a debate in Parliament, the European Commissioner for Climate, Wopke Hoekstra, explained that the fact that the EU did not yet have a clear pathway for reducing emissions between 2035 and 2040 had no consequences for the EU’s credibility at international level (see EUROPE 13721/10).
“Is this important at international level? My interpretation is: no, as long as we are ambitious in relation to the 2035 target. This is also what I saw a few weeks ago in New York (on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly - editor’s note)”, he stated.
In parallel, on Tuesday 21 October, the EU Council adopted its own conclusions on preparations for COP30 with no mention of the EU’s NDC (see EUROPE 13735/2).
To see the resolution: https://aeur.eu/f/j3y (Original version in French by Pauline Denys)