BRUSSELS — France wants to delay agreement on the European Union’s next climate target, President Emmanuel Macron said after Thursday’s EU leaders’ summit.
The European Commission will unveil a contentious proposal to reduce the bloc’s greenhouse gas emissions by 90 percent by 2040 next week.
The EU executive has long planned to derive the bloc’s 2035 climate goal from this legislative target. That goal is non-binding but is required from all countries under the Paris Agreement before this year’s United Nations summit in Belém, Brazil.
As the U.N. has set a September deadline for the 2035 objective, the Commission expects governments to reach swift agreement on the 2040 target. But now some governments are rebelling.
POLITICO reported on Wednesday that France is siding with the EU’s traditional climate laggards Poland and Hungary in demanding the EU decouple the two targets.
The reporting was met at the time with fierce denials from French government officials. But after Thursday’s European Council concluded in Brussels, Macron confirmed that he wants to deal with the 2035 target separately, and take more time to discuss 2040.
“What’s asked of us for Belém are the national trajectories for 2035. We will do that,” he said at a press conference in response to a question from POLITICO. “Now, there is a desire to have targets for 2040. … I am in favor of having these targets.”
But he insisted: “The 2040 targets can’t be a technical debate held over a few weeks. It has to be a democratic discussion among the 27” EU governments.
Decoupling the targets risks resulting in a lower-than-expected 2035 goal, casting doubts on the bloc’s global climate leadership role at a time when many look to the EU to fill the vacuum left by the United States’ withdrawal from the Paris Agreement.
Macron doesn’t think it’s worth rushing the discussion, however.
“It’s great if we have [the 2040 target] for Belém, but that’s not what’s expected of us for Belém. It’s the 2035 [target], not the European targets for 2040. So let’s not overstretch ourselves,” he said.
“So let’s stop shooting ourselves in the foot,” he added. “If we have it for Belém, super. If it’s going to take longer, let’s take more time to get it right.”
Heated debate
Macron also said that the 2040 target has to be “compatible with our competitiveness,” and insisted that renewables and nuclear power should be treated the same under the bloc’s future climate plans. Countries need additional leeway to meet the goal, too, while more investment is also needed, he argued.
Only with these aspects included in the Commission’s 2040 “package” could he support the target, he suggested.
Many governments have sent long lists of demands for agreeing to a 2040 target, and the Commission is already expected to grant countries significant flexibility to meet the goal, in order to win over a majority of countries.
EU leaders discussed the target over dinner Thursday night, a debate that Belgian Prime Minister Bart De Wever described as “heated.”
Macron’s push was backed by Polish President Donald Tusk. Hungary has previously expressed support for decoupling the two targets.
In contrast, Denmark — which takes over the rotating presidency of the Council of the EU next week — wants to stick with the Commission’s timeline and deliver both targets in September.
Ambitions in doubt
The Commission wants to set the 2035 target halfway between the EU’s existing 2030 goal and the new 2040 milestone, which works out at a reduction of 72.5 percent below 1990 emissions levels.
Without the 2040 target, there is no clear path forward. A linear trajectory between 2030 and the bloc’s climate neutrality deadline in 2050 — the option backed by Poland — would result in a lower 2035 goal of around 66 percent.
France often casts itself as the protector of the Paris Agreement, which celebrates its 10th anniversary this year, and the French push for delay was met with an outcry from climate advocates and the countries most vulnerable to the effects of global warming.
Tina Stege, climate envoy of the Marshall Islands, said at the U.N. oceans summit in Nice earlier this month that Pacific island leaders had spoken with Macron and “told him that the greatest risk to Pacific security is the climate crisis.”
“We urged him to guide the EU to an ambitious [2035 target]. If France is now backing away from that ambition, that would be a major reversal and we would be extremely concerned about what it means for their commitment to Pacific security,” she added.
“Emmanuel Macron — in Paris, international climate action was born,” said Austrian MEP Lena Schilling, a former Fridays for Future activist. “Don’t be the one to kill it.”
The post France wants to delay EU’s next climate milestone, Macron confirms appeared first on Politico.
