EU lawmakers vote through weaker 2040 climate target

 

EU lawmakers vote through weaker 2040 climate target

 

The watered-down goal is still a blow to right-wing groups, who tried to kill it altogether.

 

November 13, 2025 11:13 am CET

By Louise Guillot

https://www.politico.eu/article/european-parliament-adopts-watered-down-2040-climate-goal/

 

BRUSSELS — A majority of centrist and left-wing lawmakers in the European Parliament adopted Thursday a proposal to set a new binding climate target for the EU, defeating a push by the far right to kill it.

 

The text calls for cutting planet-warming emissions by 90 percent by 2040, and is largely a copy-paste of the position endorsed by EU governments on Nov. 5.

 

The target is broken down as follows: The EU should reduce domestic emissions by 85 percent compared to 1990 levels and, controversially, will be allowed to outsource the remaining 5 percentage points abroad by purchasing international carbon offsets.

 

A majority of members of the European Parliament agreed to back the controversial goal, with 379 casting a vote in favor, 248 against and 10 abstaining.

 

The center-left Socialists & Democrats, the liberal Renew Europe, the Greens and the far-left group supported the adoption of the 2040 target. The right-wing European Conservatives and Reformists and the far-right Patriots of Europe and Europe of Sovereign Nations groups voted against, while the center-right European People's Party (EPP) was split in half.

 

This is a "solid compromise ... that combines environmental ambition with economic competitiveness," said Lídia Pereira, a Portuguese MEP and lead lawmaker on the file for the EPP.

 

But the division inside the EPP is becoming a growing concern for Dutch MEP Gerben-Jan Gerbrandy, who was Renew's lead lawmaker on the file, because it makes majorities on future climate legislation uncertain.

 

"All four group leaders committed to [backing the target], and in the end they delivered, but it has been extremely tight with quite some deviations within EPP," he said, and "that is certainly worrying."

 

He added that on "other environmental files you see that EPP is not playing a very constructive role," referring to its landmark decision on Thursday to vote with the far right to cut new corporate due diligence rules.

 

The climate vote is a win for the defenders of the European Green Deal and the European Commission, in particular its President Ursula von der Leyen, who had made this proposal a key element of her reelection campaign in 2024.

 

It also shows the EU is staying the course of its climate policy just as countries are meeting in Brazil for the COP30 climate summit, according to Spanish S&D MEP Javi López.

 

The positive vote is “sending a strong signal to world leaders gathering at COP30. Europe once again demonstrates global leadership on climate ambition,” he said.

 

But the final text is a bitter pill to swallow for those MEPs who pushed for the EU to set a more ambitious goal.

 

Portuguese far-left MEP Catarina Martins said the target adopted Thursday is “something of a sham” because “with so many flexibility mechanisms included, there is no guarantee of a true reduction [of emissions] by the 2040 deadline.”

 

Austrian Green MEP Lena Schilling also conceded that the price to pay for getting the compromise over the line was high.

 

“Having no target was never an option,” she said. But “the price is steep,” she added, because the proposal allows the EU to use international carbon offsets, something Schilling said exposes the EU to “greenwashing.”

 

Yet, “the alternative — a Europe without a climate target in the middle of a climate crisis — would have been far worse,” she added.

 

Thursday's vote is a blow for the EPP members who tried to lower the headline target, considering it too ambitious. Bulgarian EPP lawmaker Radan Kanev said he was not surprised by the outcome, but added it shows increasing division within the bloc on climate policy.

 

Polish, French, Italian, Romanian, Hungarian and Bulgarian EPP members had filed an amendment calling to lower the goal of EU emissions cuts from 90 to 83 percent by 2040. It was not adopted.

 

The legislation will now go through inter-institutional negotiations between the Parliament and the Council of the EU before it can become law.

 

Schilling said "we will really push to now also get this finished as soon as possible, get the 2040 target in place and then continue the climate fight another files."