The EU's 2040 climate target: ambitious or inadequate?
The EU Commission has set a new climate protection target: a 90 percent reduction in net greenhouse gas emissions, compared to 1990 levels, by 2040. As of 2036, EU member states will be able to purchase up to three percentage points of their reduction target with credits from environmental projects in countries outside the EU. These "international credits" in particular are a source of controversy in Europe's press.
Accounting tricks won't help
Emissions credits threaten to water down climate targets, the taz argues:
“At the end of the day, climate protection successes will exist on paper but not in reality. It's difficult for European authorities to verify whether climate protection projects on the other side of the world deliver what they promise. Even if they are effective, it's often unclear whether they would have taken place even without investment from Europe. ... The bottom line is that if humanity wants to continue to have enough living space on Earth, the entire world must become climate neutral in a hurry. Number games and accounting tricks will only delay this.”
As long as it all adds up in the end
The Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung welcomes the added flexibility:
“It helps the climate, which doesn't care where CO2 is reduced. And it helps the EU states because it's generally cheaper to reduce CO2 outside Europe. This takes the pressure off the economy and promotes acceptance of climate policy. The EU should not abandon such projects just because they didn't work in the early days of climate action. However, it can and must ensure that the projects really do cut CO2 emissions. If that's really the case, then more than three percentage points can be taken into account.”
A positive trend - even without international credits
Dagens Nyheter is sceptical about carbon credits:
“A meta-study in Nature analysed 2,346 such projects. The result was that less than 16 percent of emissions credits corresponded to actual emissions cuts. ... Given the growing resistance to climate action - Hungary, Poland and France have already spoken out against the 2040 target - it's a relief that the European Commission has not scaled back its ambitions even further. So far, the EU's climate policy has been a great success. ... There is reason to hope that emissions can continue to fall and the EU can achieve its targets - even without the use of emissions credits.”
Germany watering down targets
Avvenire fears the measures will be purely cosmetic:
“The criticism from many non-governmental organisations and experts mainly concerns a decidedly new point. Namely, the possibility for member states to deduct up to three percent from their CO2 reduction obligations through what the Commission defines as 'high-quality international credits'. In other words, through projects in third countries (mostly developing countries) that reduce emissions, such as financing electric buses in Bangkok or photovoltaic systems in Morocco. Germany in particular had insisted on this three-percent 'discount'.”
The next climate emergency is on the way
Diederik Samsom, environmentalist and former leader of the Dutch Labour Party, complains about the weakened targets in his column in De Volkskrant:
“The Commission would have looked good if, astutely following the spirit of the times, it had not lowered the 2040 target but instead raised it: because that would benefit the climate as well as competitiveness and resilience. ... Clearly we'll have to wait for the next wave of climate crises if we want to see some political courage. And it will come, with or without a presidential candidate or a Swedish girl. The next wave of climate crises will be caused by climate change itself. It's already warm enough for that now.”