Climate ministers from European Union countries agreed Wednesday to cut emissions by 90 percent of 1990 levels by 2040. The ministers agreed to allow countries to buy foreign carbon credits to cover 5 percent of the reduction, a weakening of the previous target, but a compromise needed to ensure the backing of the required 15 of 27 member states.
As John Boyce wrote in WPR in February, a backlash against the EU’s 2019 European Green Deal began last year “when a perfect storm of rising costs and falling produce prices put an unprecedented squeeze on rural incomes and sent farmers into the streets in a series of mass protests across the EU.” In addition, the European Commission has been increasingly determined to “address the bloc’s lack of competitiveness in the face of sluggish growth, increasing competition from China and U.S. President Donald Trump’s threat of tariffs,” Boyce wrote. Nevertheless, the agreement will ensure the EU does not show up to the COP30 climate conference empty-handed.
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