Most European Union countries have backed plans to agree a deal on their new climate change target by September, sources familiar with the discussions said yesterday.
EU countries are negotiating their new 2040 climate change target, which the Commission last week proposed should be a 90 per cent emissions reduction from 1990 levels, although countries would be allowed to buy international carbon credits to meet a limited share of the goal.
Denmark, which took over the EU’s rotating presidency this month and is chairing negotiations among countries on the target, aims to strike a deal at a summit of ministers in September, Denmark’s energy and climate ministry said in a statement.
“It is extremely important that we unite the EU around new climate goals... We have a very small window to put a bow on these negotiations,” Danish Climate Minister Lars Aagaard said, following a meeting of EU countries’ climate ministers in Aalborg, Denmark.
In the meeting, most of the EU’s 27 member countries backed the plan to land a deal on the 2040 climate target in September, three sources familiar with the talks said.
But a handful of countries, including Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic, opposed a fast-tracked deal – while others demanded changes to the Commission’s proposal, the sources said.
“This is not a decision that we can just take lightly, it’s affecting the whole economy. Working under such time pressure is just not reasonable,” Polish Deputy Climate Minister Krzysztof Bolesta told Reuters, of the proposed September deadline.
Spokespeople for Hungary and the Czech Republic’s EU representations each confirmed their governments opposed the September deadline.
Climate change has made Europe the world’s fastest-warming continent, fuelling deadly heatwaves and fires.
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