EU leaders to decide on tougher climate targets in December, Czech Republic may vote in favour

Following the European Parliament’s vote for an even more ambitious 2030 target for reducing greenhouse gas emissions released into the atmosphere compared with 1990 than that proposed by the Commission (by 55 %), namely 60 %, attention is turning to the Council of Ministers. It will decide on the final form of the new climate targets.

New 2030 target

“We are convinced that the Council will bring us back to a ‘clear’ 55% target. And I am sure that we will go for it and that a majority will support it,” German MEP Peter Liese said after the European Parliament vote, ahead of the October summit.

According to Liese, who criticised the adoption of the 60% target, a majority of EU Member States support a 55% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions, even without Germany’s backing. In his words, Germany is “keeping a low profile” as it currently holds the Council presidency.

When presenting their proposal, Commission representatives also said that they were aware it would be difficult for all EU Member States to approve a 55% emissions reduction, but that they nevertheless believed it would be adopted.

Support for the new emissions target

Eleven of the 27 Member States expressed their support for a new emissions target of at least 55% by 2030 in a joint statement ahead of the Council of Ministers summit.

December summit

On 15 October 2020, EU leaders agreed that they wanted to decide on the new climate targets at the summit to be held on 10 December 2020, allowing sufficient time to unify the EU’s position in the fight against climate change and clarify certain related issues.

These include, for example, the method of allocating the new emissions target among individual  Member States.

“We are not even roughly certain what the costs for individual countries would be,” said a representative of a country that has not yet supported the 55% target, adding that with sufficient financial support for countries with higher carbon intensity to help them meet the targets, they “will not stand in the way of consensus.”

At the summit, however, all representatives of the Member States, including the Czech Republic, expressed their support for the 55% target – under certain conditions.

Climate neutrality

At the latest summit, it was confirmed that EU climate neutrality by the end of 2050 should be collective rather than individual, as voted for by the European Parliament. This was also a Czech requirement, for example.

“Every country has a different energy mix, and we must take that into account. So if we agree on a 55% reduction on average, the Czech Republic has no problem with that. Some countries could reduce [emissions] more. But we, the Czech Republic, will not achieve it,” Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babiš said.

The Czech Republic also stated that it could support the 55% target provided that the Commission does not block government plans to support the construction of a new nuclear unit at Dukovany.

Lead photo source: Yanni Koutsomitis, Flickr.com