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Extremely dry field (symbol picture): Droughts can be a consequence of climate change
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Negotiators from the EU states and the European Parliament have finally agreed to tighten the climate target for 2030.
By then, the European Union's greenhouse gases are to be reduced by at least 55 percent below the 1990 level.
This was announced by several representatives of the European Parliament and the Council of Member States in Brussels early on Wednesday morning.
So far, the target has been minus 40 percent.
After more than 15 hours of negotiations, the negotiators of the European Parliament finally accepted the brand that the EU heads of state and government had set at the end of 2020.
The EU Parliament actually wanted a lot more: a 60 percent reduction in greenhouse gases and a more rigorous calculation method.
The MPs only reached concessions in details.
In addition to the percentage, the main point of contention was the question of whether and to what extent the amounts of carbon dioxide stored by forests, plants and soils should be included.
MEPs complain that including these so-called sinks weakens the savings target.
Instead of 55 percent, the actual savings would only be 52.8 percent, complained the Greens, among others.
Afforestation should bring more cohesion
The parliamentarians negotiated at least that the counting of the sinks will be limited to 225 million tons of carbon dioxide. The EU Commission is to increase the binding power of the forests to 300 million tons of carbon dioxide through afforestation, so that more than 55 percent net greenhouse gases could be saved. Parliament succeeded in establishing a climate council with 15 experts to support the implementation of the goals. In addition, a greenhouse gas budget is determined for the next few decades, from which a milestone for 2040 can be derived.
The tightened target for 2030 is a step on the way to making the EU climate neutral by 2050.
Then almost all greenhouse gases should be avoided or stored.
This will require a comprehensive restructuring of the economy over the next 30 years towards renewable energies and production methods without emissions.
The EU Commission wants to explain how this should work in a legislative package in June.
Criticism comes from the Greens
The Greens were disappointed with the targeted brand.
"With this climate target and climate law, the European Union is losing its pioneering role in climate protection," criticized MEP Michael Bloss.
"The Paris climate agreement will hardly be adhered to, climate change will not forgive us." His group colleague Sven Giegold complained that the climate target had been reduced with a "calculation trick".
This is a serious mistake, and the federal government has also contributed to it.
Before US President Joe Biden's virtual climate summit on Thursday and Friday, the political pressure was high to tie down a binding EU target and thus bring the EU climate law under wraps.
The US is also expected to announce a more ambitious climate target for 2030.
Biden has returned his country to the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement, which his predecessor Donald Trump canceled.
At the end of the year, all contractual partners are to sharpen their climate targets at a world climate conference in Glasgow.
Otherwise the treaty goal of stopping global warming below 2 degrees - and, if possible, only 1.5 degrees - would be missed.
The benchmark for comparison is the pre-industrial era.
jok / dpa