Environment ministers have agreed to cut EU greenhouse gas emissions by 90 percent by 2040 after talks that lasted through the night.
A majority of EU member states voted in favour of the agreement.
But NGOs have criticised the deal which allows for five percent of the cut to be out-sourced to other parts of the world, effectively paying other countries to make emission cuts on Europe’s behalf.
The EU’s own European Scientific Advisory Board on Climate Change had recommended emissions to be cuts by between 90 to 95 percent by 2040.
The scientists had also advised that the EU “should aim for the upper limit of feasible reductions in domestic emissions” rather than through out-sourcing.
“Half-assing climate action is deeply irresponsible and will mean more people lose their lives, homes and livelihoods”, said Thomas Gelin from Greenpeace’s EU office.
Ministers were also unable to agree a 2035 target – the so-called NDC or National Determined Contribution – which must be presented to the UN ahead of the COP climate change conference.
Instead, the EU will aim to reduce emissions ‘in the range of’ 66.25 to 72.5 percent over the next ten years.
Greenpeace called the range “inconsistent with a credible pathway to the proposed 90 percent” by 2040.
But the EU’s Climate Commissioner, Wopke Hoekstra, defended the deal which he says is both ambitious and pragmatic.
“It’s absolutely science-based and if you look at our NDC and our 2040 target it is not only Paris-proof, it is also 1.5 [degrees]-proof”, he insisted this morning.
“It is true that part of the work could be done – it doesn’t have to be done – could be done if that option is the best one available, outside of the European Union, but once again, the planet doesn’t care where we reduce emissions. That’s just the logic of physics here, we just need to reduce them.”
Hoekstra has repeatedly said that the EU’s climate ambition must be balanced with the economic impact on European industry.
We want to find “the best possible ways against the lowest possible cost”, he said.