Open letter to EU governments on the EU 2030 target

An open letter from Bellona Europa, Carbon Market Watch, and Fern arguing against the European Commission's proposal to combine emission reductions and carbon removals in the EU's 2030 climate target. The authors contend that such a 'net target' approach risks diluting mitigation efforts, lacks democratic legitimacy, and ignores the inherent uncertainties and reversibility of carbon removals, particularly from natural sinks.

• The authors argue that the European Commission's inclination to include 'carbon removals' in the proposal to raise the 2030 greenhouse gas reduction target to at least -55% lacks legitimacy because this approach was not made explicit during public consultations.
• Combining emission reductions and carbon removals into a single target is viewed as a mistake because it risks diluting climate mitigation efforts and the benefits of carbon removal, whereas both should progress independently to reach climate neutrality by 2050.
• Natural carbon sinks, such as forests and wetlands, are considered unreliable for combined targets because they are subject to 'reversals'—where carbon is released back into the atmosphere—due to increasing frequencies of extreme weather events like droughts, floods, and wildfires.
• The document asserts that carbon removal processes face significant limitations regarding technology, economics, social acceptance, and equity, meaning actual removal capacity will likely fall short of expectations.
• The authors call for the establishment of robust definitions and verification methods for removals before any targets are set, warning that without a separate target, the system could allow for business-as-usual emissions without actual carbon removal.

APA

Frank, S., Helseth, J., & Christian, J. (2020). Open letter to EU governments on the EU 2030 target. Carbon Market Watch. https://carbonmarketwatch.org/publications/open-letter-to-eu-governments-on-the-eu-2030-target/

Chicago

Frank, Sabine, Jonas Helseth, and Julia Christian. Open letter to EU governments on the EU 2030 target. Carbon Market Watch, 2020. https://carbonmarketwatch.org/publications/open-letter-to-eu-governments-on-the-eu-2030-target/.

Wikipedia

{{cite press release |last1=Frank |first1=Sabine |last2=Helseth |first2=Jonas |last3=Christian |first3=Julia |title=Open letter to EU governments on the EU 2030 target |publisher=Carbon Market Watch |date=15 October 2020 |url=https://carbonmarketwatch.org/publications/open-letter-to-eu-governments-on-the-eu-2030-target/ |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@misc{frank2020open, author = {Frank, Sabine and Helseth, Jonas and Christian, Julia}, title = {{Open letter to EU governments on the EU 2030 target}}, publisher = {Carbon Market Watch}, year = {2020}, month = oct, url = {https://carbonmarketwatch.org/publications/open-letter-to-eu-governments-on-the-eu-2030-target/}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }