European Union countries' climate ministers are expected to confirm on Thursday that the bloc will miss a global deadline to set new emissions-cutting targets, owing to divisions among EU governments over its climate plans.
The delay could knock the EU's international leadership ahead of a United Nations climate summit next week where world leaders are expected to present new goals. The EU will attend without a new target, and miss the end-September U.N. deadline for countries to submit their climate plans.
Major emitters, including China, are expected to meet the deadline.
The U.N. has urged countries to bring updated climate plans to its General Assembly next week, in a bid to revive global momentum to tackle climate change. That momentum has been hit by President Donald Trump rolling back the U.S.'s climate commitments, and governments struggling to balance environmental protection alongside economic and geopolitical challenges.
The EU had planned to agree new climate targets for both 2040 and 2035 this month. But countries - including Germany, France and Poland - demanded government leaders first discuss the 2040 goal at a summit in October, derailing talks on both targets.
As a fallback, EU ministers will try on Thursday to agree a "statement of intent" outlining what climate goal the EU eventually hopes to approve. The U.N. refers to countries' climate plans as nationally determined contributions (NDCs).
"This statement of intent, is it as good as an NDC? Probably not. Is it much better than nothing? You bet," one senior EU official said.
A draft of the statement, previously reported by Reuters, said the EU would try to agree a target between a 66.3% and a 72.5% emissions reduction by 2035.
It said the EU would still aim to submit a final 2035 target before the U.N. COP30 climate summit in November - where nearly 200 countries will negotiate their next steps to address global warming.
Linda Kalcher, executive director of think-tank Strategic Perspectives, said failure to do this could weaken ambition at COP30.
"Other countries could use the EU as an excuse for their own inaction," she said.
The delay could knock the EU's international leadership ahead of a United Nations climate summit next week where world leaders are expected to present new goals. The EU will attend without a new target, and miss the end-September U.N. deadline for countries to submit their climate plans.
Major emitters, including China, are expected to meet the deadline.
The U.N. has urged countries to bring updated climate plans to its General Assembly next week, in a bid to revive global momentum to tackle climate change. That momentum has been hit by President Donald Trump rolling back the U.S.'s climate commitments, and governments struggling to balance environmental protection alongside economic and geopolitical challenges.
The EU had planned to agree new climate targets for both 2040 and 2035 this month. But countries - including Germany, France and Poland - demanded government leaders first discuss the 2040 goal at a summit in October, derailing talks on both targets.
As a fallback, EU ministers will try on Thursday to agree a "statement of intent" outlining what climate goal the EU eventually hopes to approve. The U.N. refers to countries' climate plans as nationally determined contributions (NDCs).
"This statement of intent, is it as good as an NDC? Probably not. Is it much better than nothing? You bet," one senior EU official said.
A draft of the statement, previously reported by Reuters, said the EU would try to agree a target between a 66.3% and a 72.5% emissions reduction by 2035.
It said the EU would still aim to submit a final 2035 target before the U.N. COP30 climate summit in November - where nearly 200 countries will negotiate their next steps to address global warming.
Linda Kalcher, executive director of think-tank Strategic Perspectives, said failure to do this could weaken ambition at COP30.
"Other countries could use the EU as an excuse for their own inaction," she said.
