EU leaders launched a final sprint recently to agree on a 10-year target to cut carbon emissions ahead of a key UN climate conference, laying out conditions including leaving the door open to future revisions.
The heads of the European Union’s 27 states held talks in Brussels to chart a way forward between competing goals: to support the bloc’s ailing businesses including its cherished car industry, and to play a lead role in the climate fight.
The gathering came with the EU under pressure to agree on their next big emissions target ahead of the United Nations COP30 climate summit which starts in Brazil on November 10. No final decision was reached – and none was expected – but the discussions should provide fodder for a deal within two weeks. ‘We reaffirmed our commitment to the Paris Agreement and also agreed that we need to be pragmatic and flexible in our strategy,’ European Council President Antonio Costa told a press conference, referring to a 2015 UN climate deal.
The meeting, paired with an earlier letter to leaders by EU chief Ursula von der Leyen outlining planned reforms, ‘helped create the right conditions’ for a 2040 EU target to be agreed on, Costa added.