The EU endorses the target of a 60% reduction in CO2 emissions by 2030

CO2 emissions -

“Never has such an ambitious goal been found.

This will boost the ambition of the whole of Europe.

The European Parliament's Environment Committee on Thursday adopted a binding target of reducing the EU's greenhouse gas emissions by at least 60%, which its President Pascal Canfin welcomed.

The amendment setting out this objective was adopted by MEPs by a narrow majority of three votes, according to a parliamentary source.

This objective will still have to be validated by the whole of Parliament in plenary session in early October.

The goal of neutrality in 2050 is far from being achieved

The European Commission, the executive of the Union, published in early March its draft “climate law” for the EU, which notably endorses the objective of carbon neutrality in 2050, but the details of which are now being discussed between Parliament. and the Council (the Member States).

However, the Commission had given itself until September to propose a figure that will revise the climate objective for 2030, currently set at -40% compared to the 1990 level, in order to bring it into line with the climate neutrality targeted for 2050. Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has promised to consider a range between 50 and 55%, but member states remain divided.

An impact study is due early next week and Ursula von der Leyen should "very likely" reveal a precise figure during her "State of the Union speech" on Wednesday, according to a parliamentary source.

The political groups in Parliament also remain divided.

An encouraging "advance"

“Carbon neutrality by 2050 is very ambitious and difficult, so we must remain realistic: we expect the Commission to never accept the demands of the left of Parliament for a reduction target of 60% or 65% ”, recalled in a statement the MEP Peter Liese, spokesman of the EPP (right) for the environment.

His party pleads for -50%.

"Our group was ambitious but also pragmatic: beyond the figures, we must prove that we can implement them, that our economy can support it", commented for his part Wednesday to AFP Dacian Ciolos, president of the Renew Europe group (liberals and centrists).

On the contrary, the NGO Climate Action Network (CAN) greeted Thursday an encouraging "progress".

"The position of the Environment committee must be a warning signal for the whole of Parliament, and beyond for the other European institutions", judged Wendel Trio, director of CAN Europe, while considering that only a reduction of 65% would achieve the objective of limiting global warming to a maximum of 1.5 ° C set by the Paris agreement.

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