European leaders will discuss the bloc’s climate efforts at this week’s Council summit following a late addition to the meeting’s agenda, Reuters reported, after officials had previously indicated that the issue of migration would dominate and leave little room for talks regarding the Paris Agreement.
A draft EU text seen by the news outlet underlines the need for the bloc to “ratify the Paris Agreement as soon as possible”, while confirming that the EU is committed to its already-agreed 2030 target to cut emissions by at least 40% under 1990 levels.
The mostly closed-doors European Council meeting starts at 1400 GMT Thursday, with leaders mainly discussing migration issues and Turkey into the evening and on Friday morning.
Read Carbon Pulse’s analysis on why EU leaders are unlikely to budge on the 2030 goal
FACTFILE
- Environment ministers from Germany and several other EU states have called for the bloc to deepen the EU’s 2030 goals in response to the Paris Agreement, but plenty of their counterparts said the current targets were adequate.
- Commission officials have been briefing lawmakers that the EU’s 2030 GHG target could not easily be altered to fit deeper global aspirations, despite being aware that its proposed reforms to the EU ETS won’t keep pace with current UN obligations regarding worldwide temperature limits.
- A deeper overall EU target would drastically lower the emissions cap of the ETS, which regulates just under half of the bloc’s greenhouse gas output.
By Ben Garside – ben@carbon-pulse.com
