EU unveils long-delayed 2040 climate target

The EU yesterday unveiled its long-delayed target for cutting greenhouse gas emissions by 2040, but with contested new flexibilities built in to win over the most sceptical member states.

After months of tough negotiations with EU states, Brussels announced it would stick to the objective announced last year of cutting emissions by 90 percent by 2040, compared to 1990 levels.

The proposal comes as much of Europe roasts in an early summer heatwave, which scientists say are becoming more intense, frequent and widespread due to human-induced climate change.

The 2040 target -- which needs the sign off from the European Union's member states and parliament -- is a key milestone towards the bloc's goal of becoming carbon neutral by 2050.

Brussels says the EU has cut climate-warming emissions by 37 percent relative to 1990 but its green agenda faces mounting pushback with a rightward shift and rising climate scepticism in many European countries.

EU climate chief Wopke Hoekstra acknowledged the "sensitive" debate, saying Brussels was keeping an "ambitious" goal while being "pragmatic and flexible on how to achieve it".

To sway resistant capitals, the European Commission proposes that from 2036, the bloc's 27 countries can count carbon credits purchased to finance projects outside Europe, for up to three percent of their emission cuts.

Climate groups are fiercely opposed to such a measure.

Backed by scientific studies and the commission's own science advisers, they say factoring in international credits -- for things like tree-planting or renewable-energy projects -- risks undermining the EU's own efforts to shift away from fossil fuels.

"Three percent is not insignificant. These are potentially considerable sums that will be spent abroad instead of financing the transition" in Europe, said Neil Makaroff, an expert at the climate-focused Strategic Perspectives think tank.

"But there's a political compromise to be found," he said. "The challenge will be for the EU to establish a standard so that these international credits truly help cut emissions and not leave individual states to their own devices."