EU must speed up emissions cuts to meet net zero climate target, says report

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The EU must “significantly” accelerate its efforts to cut greenhouse gas emissions if it is to meet its 2030 and 2050 climate targets, according to a leading scientific advisory group for the bloc.

The European Climate Neutrality Observatory assessed dozens of indicators across leading economic sectors. Progress towards the EU’s goals, including its target of net zero emissions by 2050, was particularly poor in forestry and finance, with the bloc needing to increase its annual climate investments by €360bn to help reach net zero, according to the first comprehensive report to track the bloc’s progress.

The consortium of research groups also said Brussels must step up its efforts to help households reduce their carbon footprint.

The EU has positioned itself as a leader in climate policy, targeting a 55 per cent cut in greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 and net zero by 2050. By 2021, the EU had cut its emissions by 30 per cent compared with 1990 levels. But to reach the 2030 goal it would need to make further cuts of 132 megatonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent a year, the report said, roughly the annual output of 332 gas-powered stations.

“The past five years of data offers a clear message: while emissions in Europe have continued to go down, a faster rate of reduction is required to meet both the 2030 target and climate neutrality by 2050,” it added.

The World Meteorological Organization said this week that Europe was warming “twice as much” as the global average, with temperatures around 2.3C above pre-industrial levels in 2022. Last year saw extreme heat, drought and wildfires across the continent, “new highs” in the region’s sea surface temperatures and “unprecedented” levels of glacial melting, it said.

Rob Jetten, Dutch minister for climate and energy who negotiates for the EU at COP climate summits, said it was crucial that Europe hit its emissions reduction targets because the region “needs to lead and set the example on climate action, given our historic responsibility”.

The European Commission has closed its consultation to set the bloc’s 2040 target on Friday, and is expected to make its first official assessment of progress towards net zero emissions in September.

The ECNO report, however, warned that data gaps were hindering lawmakers’ ability to make informed decisions on reaching climate neutrality. EU lawmakers are not bound by the body’s recommendations.

The researchers’ findings are expected to be backed up by a report due to be published by the European Court of Auditors on Monday that will suggest that the EU has not taken sufficient action towards its 2030 target.

The ECNO report found that the average EU carbon footprint from household expenditure had decreased by an average of 1.2 per cent annually between 2014 and 2019, a rate that was “far too slow” to meet the 2050 climate neutrality goal.

There were “little to no” EU policies geared towards helping consumers switch to more sustainable lifestyles, and, although a decrease in red meat consumption had helped, Europe’s agrifood sector would need to decarbonise at more than double its current rate, the report said.

The EU was also “going in the wrong direction” on fossil fuel subsidies, the report said, with expenditure “rocketing” in 2021 and 2022 from €46.2bn in 2020 in response to the energy crisis triggered by Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

There were “no available indicators at the EU level that assess the alignment of the financial system with the Paris climate agreement in a relevant way”, nor a system for tracking whether trade policy was aligned with the Paris goals, it added.

Other areas of concern were a lack of investment into power networks to support the rollout of renewables, and slow progress on the phaseout of fossil fuel-powered boilers and uptake of clean energy by industry.

The commission said the current president Ursula von der Leyen took office in 2019 “with a plan to strengthen the EU’s climate targets”.

“The EU now has binding emissions reduction targets for 2030 and 2050 fixed in the Climate Law . . . and the pace of transition is increasing across Europe.”