EU faces legal challenge over ‘grossly inadequate’ climate targets 28/08/2024

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By AFP - Agence France Presse

EU faces legal challenge over ‘grossly inadequate’ climate targets

Green activists said on Tuesday they were taking the European Union to court over ‘grossly inadequate’ climate targets, accusing Brussels of violating a key global agreement.

CAN Europe and the Global Legal Action Network (GLAN) said in written legal arguments to an EU high court that the 27-nation bloc's targets for emissions from agriculture, waste, small industry, and transport were ‘grossly inadequate’.

‘The EU's overall climate ambition remains alarmingly off track from the 1.5 degree Celsius limit of the 2015 Paris climate accords,’ the groups said in a statement.

The agreement set the ambitious goal of limiting the world to a temperature rise 1.5ºC over pre-industrial levels.

The EU faces a delicate balancing act. It is endeavoring to reduce carbon emissions, but at the same time, it faces the wrath of farmers who say that the EU's targets are making their job too difficult.

There have been ongoing protests by farmers in Brussels and across Europe against the bloc's targets, but environmental campaigners are calling for more ambitious goals.

The two climate groups were criticized as part of a fast-track case submitted earlier this year to a top EU court.

They said a hearing at the Luxembourg-based General Court of the European Union is scheduled for next year, with a possible ruling in 2026.

They are using a legal ruling by the European Court of Human Rights - part of the 46-member Council of Europe - from April against Switzerland, which the court said was not doing enough to combat climate change.

CAN Europe and GLAN said that the EU's 2030 target of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 55 percent, based on 1990 levels, is insufficient.

‘The EU needs to step up emissions reductions and achieve at least a 65 percent cut by 2030 if it wants to be a credible actor,’ said Sven Harmeling, CAN Europe's climate director.

The groups also said in their complaint that they want the European Commission, the EU's executive arm, to reduce the permitted emissions for different sectors, including agriculture and transport.

The Commission wanted all 27 countries to submit their plans to achieve the 55% cut in emissions last year, before finalising them in June 2024.

However, by December 2023, the Commission had only received plans from 21 countries, which had serious shortcomings. By this summer's deadline, the Commission had received plans from only four countries: Denmark, Finland, Sweden, and the Netherlands.

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