The EU's 2040 climate target: ambitious or inadequate?

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.”