Brussels (Belgium) (AFP) – EU countries will seek Thursday to settle on an emissions-cutting plan to bring to a key UN conference in Brazil, as divisions on the bloc’s green agenda threaten its global leadership on climate.
Environment ministers for the 27-nation bloc are gathering in Brussels with the clock ticking down on a United Nations deadline to produce plans to fight global warming for 2035.
One of the world’s biggest greenhouse-gas emitters behind China, the United States and India, the EU has to date been the most committed to climate action, by some margin.
As such the bloc was hoping to pull ahead and derive its submission to November’s COP30 climate conference from a more ambitious 2040 goal.
But that is yet to be agreed by member states, leaving Brussels scrambling for a last-minute solution.
Denmark, which holds the EU’s rotating presidency, has suggested submitting to the UN a “statement of intent”, rather than a hard target.
That would include a pledge to cut emissions between 66.3 percent and 72.5 percent compared to 1990 levels – with the range expected to be narrowed down at a later stage.
“This approach would ensure that (the) EU does not go to (the) UN Climate Summit empty-handed,” said a spokesperson for the Danish presidency of the European Council.
But even that is hardly a done deal and talks on Thursday could prove lengthy. One European diplomat suggested reporters prepare “a sleeping bag”.