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european The union is trying to create new climate targets ahead of UN climate talks on Tuesday brazil Starting from next week.
Ministers of group of 27 countries are meeting brussels At least 15 are attempting to align their nationally-determined emissions targets to strengthen their negotiating position during the COP30 summit in Belém.
“We need to show the world that we are leaders on climate change. We need to give an adequate signal to investors. Today is the day,” Spain’s Climate Minister Sara Egesen said ahead of the meeting.
The EU’s long-standing leadership in climate action is under threat due to domestic and international pressure.
Wildfires, heat waves and floods have disrupted life across Europe, increasing calls for more climate action. But crises like Russia’s war in Ukraine and its new unstable relationship with United States of Americahas increased political and economic pressure to reduce major environmental policies.
Environmentalists are troubled by the recent weakening of deforestation laws by the European Commission, the EU’s executive branch. They worry that it signals deep disillusionment with the green priorities of the European Commission President Ursula von der LeyenIn February, he announced an economic policy stance that some said destroyed his 2019 green deal. But von der Leyen said in September that “the world can count on Europe’s climate leadership” and pledged that the EU “is on the path to climate neutrality” and will reduce carbon emissions by 90% by 2040.
He has linked climate investments to sovereignty and defence, arguing that a self-reliant Europe can better withstand threats such as disruptive tariffs or export controls, armed conflict and environmental disasters.
Many EU governments have shifted to the right since the Paris Agreement in 2015. Some see climate rules as weakening the economy, while others say Europe will either make and sell renewable energy or be forced to buy energy or green products from countries like China.
EU Climate Commissioner Wopke Hoekstra said the bloc “needs to combine climate action with competitiveness and industrial prudence, if you like, and freedom will be the name of the game in the coming years.”
“We will do our best to succeed, but it will take 27 years to tango,” he said of Tuesday’s talks.
The US decision to withdraw from the Paris Agreement and scale back its climate targets has rattled Europe, whose climate vision was partly created in partnership with the Democratic administrations of US Presidents Barack Obama and Joseph Biden.
The Paris Agreement aims to prevent the average global temperature from rising by more than 2 °C (3.6 °F), and ideally to limit it to 1.5 °C (2.7 °F) compared to the 1850s. To do this, the agreement states that nations must reduce planet-warming pollution that results from burning coal, oil and gas.
EU commitments in Paris have driven investment in renewable energy and electric vehicles, often in cooperation and conflict with Chinese companies. Levels of heat-trapping carbon dioxide in the atmosphere rose to the highest amount on record last year, to heights not seen in human civilization and are “turbocharging” Earth’s climate and causing more extreme weather, according to the United Nations weather agency.
Europe is the world’s fastest warming continent and has been warming twice as fast as other regions since the 1980s. The warming has been linked to more intense rain and flooding, and reports predict declines in rainfall and more severe drought in southern Europe.
“Today is about the level of ambition, and it’s about standing the ground and not just sticking to it when it’s easy, but also following through when it gets difficult,” Swedish Climate Minister Romina Purmokhtari said in Brussels.
The COP30 summit is scheduled to take place in Brazil on November 10-21.