Lawmakers in Brussels on Thursday adopted their position on changes to the European Climate Law, which already sets 2050 climate neutrality and a 55-percent reduction by 2030 as legally binding targets for all EU member states.
The new 2040 goal is an intermediate, binding target that is meant to guide investment in energy, transport, industry and agriculture over the next decade and a half.
The text was approved by 379 votes to 248, with 10 abstentions.
Parliament will now open talks with EU governments on the final shape of the law.
Members of the European Parliament say the green transition and Europe’s economic strength must move together. They accepted the European Commission’s idea of allowing more flexibility in how the targets are met, and they went further in some areas.
From 2036, up to 5 percentage points of net emissions reductions could come from high-quality international carbon credits from partner countries. The Commission had originally suggested a cap of 3 percentage points.
MEPs want "assurances that this will be subject to robust safeguards."
Parliament also wants the option to use domestic permanent carbon removals, for example long-term storage of carbon dioxide, to balance hard-to-abate emissions in the EU emissions trading system, known as the EU ETS.
Lawmakers are calling for more flexibility within and between sectors and policy tools so that targets can be reached in the most cost-effective way.
On carbon markets, the Parliament supported a request by member states to postpone the start of a new emissions trading system for buildings and road transport, known as ETS2.
This system, which will put a carbon price on fuels used for home heating and road transport, was due to begin in 2027. Under the parliament’s position it would start in 2028 instead.
The delay to ETS2 has been a key demand of the Polish government, which argues that the scheme, agreed under the previous Law and Justice (PiS) administration, would increase heating and transport costs for households.
After EU environment ministers reached a deal last week, Polish Deputy Climate Minister Krzysztof Bolesta said the compromise had "pulled the teeth" of ETS2 and corrected what he described as a serious policy error.
Prime Minister Donald Tusk also claimed political credit, saying on the X platform that the government had delivered on a promise to “defuse” additional ETS2 charges for heating and transport.
Polish members of the European Parliament tried to go further than the agreed one-year delay.
Lawmakers from the Civic Coalition (KO) and the Polish People’s Party (PSL), sitting in the European People’s Party group, proposed amendments to postpone ETS2 by three years. Members from PiS, in the European Conservatives and Reformists group, called for the system to be stopped altogether.
Both attempts failed to win majority support.
The parliament’s position also includes a detailed review clause. MEPs want the European Commission to assess progress toward climate goals every two years.
The reviews are meant to look at the state of carbon removals in the EU, emerging problems in meeting the targets, and the impact on the competitiveness of European industry.
They should also monitor energy price trends and their effects on households and businesses. If needed, the Commission would propose changes to the climate law, which could include adjusting the 2040 target or adding new measures to protect competitiveness, prosperity, and social cohesion.
The European Climate Law, adopted in 2021, already makes the 2050 climate neutrality goal a legal obligation for all EU countries and sets a binding target to cut net greenhouse gas emissions by at least 55 percent by 2030, compared with 1990.
The new 2040 target, together with the decision to delay ETS2 and to allow limited use of international carbon credits and permanent removals, will now be the subject of negotiations between the Parliament, the Council representing member states, and the European Commission.
Only after those talks, known as trilogues, produce a single agreed text will the new rules become EU law.
(rt/gs)
Source: PAP, europarl.europa.eu