Turbulence ahead for the EU’s 2040 climate target

The European Commission is proposing a new emissions reduction target for 2040. However, divisions among member states and within the European Parliament leave a question mark over whether Brussels can build enough support for a new climate goal on the road to net zero in 2050. As some call for more climate ambition and others try to carve out more wiggle room to carry on emitting, the Commission’s roster of climate goals risks fuelling diplomatic battles across Europe.

02 July 2025 at 8h00

Energy

European Climate Commissioner Wopke Hoekstra. Lukasz Kobus/European Union, 2025

by Damien Genicot Adapted from French by Gabriela Galindo

On 2 July, the European Commission is unveiling a long-awaited legal proposal to set a 2040 emissions reduction target for the European Union. The proposal will come more than a year after the Commission published an impact study recommending that, by 2040, the bloc should aim to have cut net emissions by 90% from 1990 levels. This, it said, would put the EU on the right track to reaching its binding objective of climate neutrality by 2050.

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Turbulence ahead for the EU’s 2040 climate target

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