EU clinches deal on climate law, tougher 2030 emissions goal

TheEuropean Union clinched adealin the early hours of Wednesday on a landmarklawto make itsclimate-changegoals legally binding, including a target to slash its net greenhouse gasemissionsby at least 55 per cent this decade.

Thedealarrives just in time for a summit of world leaders hosted by the USgovernment on Thursday and Friday, where theEUand other global powers will promote their pledges to protect the planet.

TheEuropeanclimatelawsets the framework that will guideEUclimate-related regulations in the coming decades, steering it towards reaching zero netemissionsby 2050 - a pathway which, if adopted globally, would limit global temperature increases to 1.5 degrees above pre-industrial levels and avoid the worst impacts ofclimatechange.

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More than a year after theEuropean Commission proposed the bill, negotiators representing theEuropean Parliament and the 27EUgovernments finally finished its contents on Wednesday, after all-night talks.

The target to cutEU-wide netemissionsby at least 55 per cent by2030, from 1990 levels, replaces a previousgoalfor a 40 per centcut. By 2019,EUemissionswere already 24 per centlower than in 1990.

EUlawmakers had wanted to go further to 60 per centby2030. Environmental campaigners had said the cut should be 65 per cent.

Negotiators agreed to limit the amount ofemissionsremovals that can be counted towards the2030target, to 225 million tonnes of CO2 equivalent.

That aims to ensure thegoalis met by cuttingemissionsfrom polluting sectors, rather than relying on removing CO2 from the atmosphere through carbon-absorbing forests and wetlands.

"This is a landmark moment for theEU. We have reached an ambitious agreement to write ourclimateneutrality target into binding legislation, as a guide to our policies for the next 30 years," Commission vice-president Frans Timmermans said in a statement.