BRUSSELS — Austria’s new government has declined to endorse the European Commission’s recommendation for a 90 percent cut in planet-warming emissions by 2040, depriving Brussels of an expected ally for the embattled target.
Vienna never explicitly agreed to support the target, but former Austrian Climate Minister Leonore Gewessler was among the first to welcome the EU executive’s suggestion for a 90 percent reduction in February 2024. Austria, she stressed, intended to slash national emissions to net-zero by 2040 in any case.
Yet Gewessler’s Greens are no longer in power, and the new coalition government is taking a more cautious position.
“It’s crucial that a 2040 climate target helps secure [Europe’s] competitiveness, including for green technologies, as well as food security and a just transition,” said a spokesperson for Austria’s agriculture and environment ministry when asked by POLITICO last week whether the government supports a 90 percent goal.
“We now have to wait for the Commission’s concrete proposal, which we will examine in detail because the small print is also relevant for achieving the 2040 target,” they added.
Austria’s backtracking adds to the political pressure on the Commission to soften the 2040 target. The EU executive had meant to turn its 2024 recommendation into a formal legislative proposal by the end of March, but opted for an indefinite delay as it became clear that the 90 percent target did not have sufficient support among EU countries.
The Commission’s climate chief, Wopke Hoekstra, is now exploring options to introduce “flexibilities” into the target while maintaining the 90 percent headline figure.
That includes the controversial suggestion to meet part of the EU’s 2040 target by paying other countries to reduce their emissions and counting that toward the bloc’s own climate balance sheet. The payments would occur via an international carbon credits system set up under the Paris climate accord.
The new German coalition and France already back the idea, but critics warn that the approach would undermine the integrity of the EU’s climate policy framework.
The Austrian ministry side-stepped POLITICO’s question on whether the country supports the use of foreign carbon credits, merely noting that “Wopke Hoekstra has already signaled a pragmatic approach” to the 2040 target.
The spokesperson insisted that the new government was nevertheless “committed” to the EU’s and Austria’s existing climate neutrality targets as well as “the implementation of the EU legal requirements adopted to date.”
But there’s no question that the new government — which consists of the conservative Peoples’ Party (ÖVP), the center-left Social Democrats and the liberal NEOS party — is treating climate policy as less of a priority than the previous ÖVP-Greens coalition.
Upon taking office, the government took apart Gewessler’s green super-ministry — which gave her responsibility for climate, environment, energy, mobility and tech policy — and integrated climate issues into the country’s conservative-led agriculture ministry. The coalition also agreed to scrap the country’s pioneering climate bonus, which redistributed revenues from CO2 taxation to all Austrians.
Asked whether the new government’s position on 2040 represents a reversal of the previous coalition’s stance, the ministry declined to comment, saying that consultations within the government and with Austria’s federal states were needed to reach an official position.
Gewessler occasionally forged ahead with decisions without the backing of her conservative coalition partners, notably when she voted in favor of the EU’s Nature Restoration Law against the ÖVP’s wishes. But her support for the 2040 target was not challenged at the time.
“As minister responsible in the Council, Leonore Gewessler emphasized that the emissions reduction target must in any case be decided on the basis of scientific evidence and therefore welcomed the science-based recommendation for a 90 percent target,” a spokesperson for the Austrian Greens said.
“This position was not explicitly agreed in the government at the time, but the Austrian government has based its positions on scientific fact in principle,” they added.
The EU’s scientific advisory council has called for a 2040 target of at least 90 percent.
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