There is currently no timetable for the climate target. (symbol image)Image: www.imago-images.de
Nov 5, 2025, 9:37 amNovember 5, 2025, 10:35 a.m
To protect the climate, the EU states want to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions by at least 90 percent by 2040 compared to 1990. According to a compromise by the environment ministers, five percentage points of this should be able to be bought through deals with non-European countries, as the Danish EU Council Presidency announced.
The ministers struggled until early Wednesday morning in sometimes chaotic negotiations to reach an agreement, which now has to be negotiated with the European Parliament.
Schneider praises the result
Based on this goal, Federal Environment Minister Carsten Schneider (SPD) and his colleagues decided, after more than 20 hours of negotiations in Brussels, to reduce emissions by between 66.25 percent and 72.5 percent by 2035 compared to 1990. The EU must now submit this climate plan to the United Nations for the COP30 world climate conference. Time is of the essence: the conference in Brazil starts in a few days. Two deadlines, in February and most recently in September, have already been canceled because the member states had not reached an agreement.
The German Federal Environment Minister, Carsten Schneider.Image: keystone
Switzerland submitted its goals for COP 30 in January. It wants to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by at least 65 percent compared to 1990 levels, and by 59 percent on average between 2031 and 2035. The goals should be achieved primarily through measures at home.
Weaken climate protection to relieve the burden on the economy?
The EU already has climate targets for 2030 and 2050 – those for 2040 are still pending. That’s why the European Commission proposed in July, based on scientific findings, that emissions should be reduced by 90 percent over the next 15 years compared to 1990. The essential points of the proposal correspond to the climate goals of the black-red federal government set out in the coalition agreement.
The states have now significantly weakened the Commission’s proposal. In view of economic burdens, a tense geopolitical environment and industrial problems, there was resistance in some EU states until the very end. According to the compromise, up to five percentage points should now be able to be achieved through climate certificates from abroad as early as 2031. The EU Commission had proposed three percentage points from 2036, and Germany supported this.
Poland, for example, had previously demanded that ten percentage points of the necessary reduction be able to be met with foreign certificates.
So far, the EU has had to achieve its climate goals by reducing greenhouse gases on its own soil. Climate certificates from non-EU countries should be able to offset greenhouse gas emissions that arise in the EU: For example, it should be possible to buy emission credits for projects that store or remove carbon from the atmosphere and add them to the domestic reductions.
When using foreign certificates for compensation, critics fear that states in the Global South are deliberately setting their national climate targets lower in order to have Europeans pay for increases – or that reductions could be counted twice.
The goal should be checked regularly
In addition, the EU Commission wants to review every two years whether the EU is moving in the right direction and whether the 2040 target is compatible with Europe’s competitiveness and science. If necessary, the Commission should also be able to make new legislative proposals. If carbon sinks such as forests or moors contribute less to reducing emissions than expected, the target should also be able to be lowered.
The EU countries also want fuels to only intervene in the trading system with greenhouse gas certificates from 2028, a year later than planned. With so-called emissions trading, companies have to prove their rights to emit greenhouse gases. Actually, fuels should also be included from 2027, which particularly affects the transport and building sectors.
Another step is still pending
The EU Parliament also still has to take a position on the Commission’s proposal for the climate target for 2040. There is no timetable for this yet. The states and parliamentarians then have to negotiate before the goal can come into force.
The Green MEP Michael Bloss complained that the ministers were engaging in political self-deception instead of climate protection. “The council decides on a goal full of revision clauses, excuses and new back doors,” said Bloss. “Less climate protection for a strong climate goal, this equation doesn’t work.” (sda/dpa)