There can be no flexibility in the EU’s 2040 climate target

Carbon Market Watch warns that the European Commission is considering "loopholes" to weaken the EU's 2040 climate target, including the use of international carbon credits and carbon removals. The organization argues that such measures would undermine domestic emissions reductions, repeat past failures of the EU Emissions Trading System, and contradict the recommendations of the European Scientific Advisory Board on Climate Change, which suggests a 90-95% emissions cut through domestic action alone.

• The European Commission is reportedly exploring four loopholes to weaken the 2040 climate target, including postponing action until the late 2030s, increasing flexibility between sectors, and relying on international offsets and carbon removals.
• The use of international carbon credits under Article 6 of the Paris Agreement is criticized for lacking sufficient provisions to ensure real climate benefits, with risks of over-estimation and a lack of additionality that could lead to an actual increase in global emissions.
• Past integration of 1.6 billion international credits into the EU Emissions Trading System (ETS) before 2020 is cited as a failure that crashed carbon prices, slowed domestic climate action, and reduced ETS auctioning revenues for member states.
• Carbon removals should not substitute for emissions reductions; the EU's land carbon sink is shrinking, and some member states are expected to miss 2030 national natural sinks targets, potentially leaving the EU-wide target short by at least 13%.
• The European Scientific Advisory Board on Climate Change (ESABCC) has recommended that the EU achieve emissions reductions of 90-95% by 2040 using only domestic action.

APA

Dossi, F. (2025). There can be no flexibility in the EU’s 2040 climate target. Carbon Market Watch. https://carbonmarketwatch.org/2025/04/08/there-can-be-no-flexibility-in-the-eus-2040-climate-target/

Chicago

Dossi, Federica. There can be no flexibility in the EU’s 2040 climate target. Carbon Market Watch, 2025. https://carbonmarketwatch.org/2025/04/08/there-can-be-no-flexibility-in-the-eus-2040-climate-target/.

Wikipedia

{{cite press release |last1=Dossi |first1=Federica |title=There can be no flexibility in the EU’s 2040 climate target |publisher=Carbon Market Watch |date=8 April 2025 |url=https://carbonmarketwatch.org/2025/04/08/there-can-be-no-flexibility-in-the-eus-2040-climate-target/ |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@misc{dossi2025there, author = {Dossi, Federica}, title = {{There can be no flexibility in the EU’s 2040 climate target}}, publisher = {Carbon Market Watch}, year = {2025}, month = apr, url = {https://carbonmarketwatch.org/2025/04/08/there-can-be-no-flexibility-in-the-eus-2040-climate-target/}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }