EU lawmakers have endorsed a 2040 climate target to cut greenhouse-gas emissions by 90% from 1990 levels, while allowing up to 10 percentage points of the reduction to be met through UN-backed carbon credits – a move that significantly weakens the bloc’s headline ambition.
The deal, reached in the early hours of Wednesday after four hours of negotiations, largely mirrors EU capitals’ position and ends 18 months of arduous talks that repeatedly ran into political resistance from industry-friendly capitals and nervous MEPs.
Under the compromise, the EU will keep its headline 90% target – both lawmakers and governments insisted – but five percentage points may be delivered through international carbon-offset deals with developing nations from 2036. Countries will also be permitted to apply to outsource a further five percentage points. In practice, the bloc could only end up cutting domestic emissions by 80% if both flexibilities are fully used.
Climate Commissioner Wopke Hoekstra said the agreement delivered “a very robust, very ambitious, at the same time pragmatic” framework that “enhances predictability” for industry. “That is, in my view, a crystal clear win for Europe,” he told Euractiv.
MEPs secured two key concessions: minimum “quality criteria” for any outsourced climate action – ensuring projects are sustainable, subject to strong monitoring, and aligned with EU strategic interests – and a future oral statement from the Commission clarifying that offset credits should not be recognised under the EU’s Emissions Trading System.
The provisional agreement, which still requires formal approval, risks further eroding the EU’s claim to global climate leadership. At COP30, the bloc was unable to rally major emitters behind a fossil-fuel phase-out and made little progress in pressing other countries to strengthen their 2035 targets, leaving the world on track for only a 12% cut in emissions from peak levels.
The EU’s 2040 target will be assessed every two years and reviewed every five, with additional legislation expected to map out how the bloc intends to meet it.
(cz)