EU ministers close to deal on watering down 2040 climate target

“We believe we have the basis for a political deal. We expect to formally conclude a deal when we resume in a few hours,” said a spokesperson for Denmark, which is chairing the discussions.

The draft agreement on 2040, seen by POLITICO, will hollow out the European Commission’s proposal and demand the postponement of a core climate law.

The EU executive had proposed a 90 percent cut in emissions by 2040 compared to 1990, while allowing countries to outsource 3 percentage points to other nations — meaning the bloc would commit to achieving at least 87 percent through domestic climate efforts.

While the headline target stands, the draft deal only commits the EU to an 85 percent domestic emissions cut, with the option of going even below this figure.

The EU would collectively outsource up to 5 percentage points by purchasing so-called carbon credits from other countries — with the draft text scrapping language that referred to such offsets only as a “possible” option and explicitly setting out a “domestic reduction … by 85 percent.”

On top of that, the new text allows countries to outsource another 5 percentage points of their national targets.