European Commission: Finland must cut greenhouse gas emissions by 39% by 2030

If adopted in their current guise, the proposed targets would see the bloc’s richest economies set binding targets to cut emissions from non-ETS sectors such as buildings, agriculture, waste, and transport, by between 30 per cent and 40 per cent against 2005 levels.

“Opting for a more ambitious approach would cut greenhouse gases more than the 2014 emissions of Germany and France combined, having a great positive impact for the climate”, Trio concluded. Commenting on last week’s leaked draft version of the report, T&E claimed that a Europe-first emissions standard for trucks was a “breakthrough”.

Rather than cutting emissions by at least 30 percent, the use of fake forestry credits and surplus ETS permits would lower the target for the non-traded sectors to merely 27 percent actual reductions.

Claire Jakobsson, head of energy and climate policy, at manufacturers’ association EEF said the proposed 37 per cent target for the United Kingdom was largely in line with expectations and as such “should not pose a threat to our global competitiveness”.

The EU climate package should be “an opportunity for transforming the economy and bring it closer to what we need in the 21st century: a low-carbon, big data-based economy”, commission vice-president Maros Sefcovic said. “We have a balance with a fair distribution of efforts”.

As the first major piece of legislation since Britons voted in June to leave, it is a test of the union’s cohesion, as it seeks to keep to a pact agreed in Paris previous year aimed at holding global warming “well below” 2 degrees Celsius.

The plans for the 28 European Union member states put the onus on Sweden, Luxembourg, Finland, Denmark, Germany, Britain, France and Austria as the bloc seeks to meet its commitment to cut emissions by 40 percent over 1990 levels.

These measures should allow reaching goals set at the Paris climate conference late a year ago.

In contrast, Bulgaria, the poorest state in the bloc, was given an emissions reductions target of zero percent, while Romania, Latvia, Croatia, Poland, Hungary and Lithuania are all set below 10 percent. In addition, the proposal rewards countries which will miss their 2020 targets by setting the starting point on the basis of the average 2016-2018 emissions.

Under the commission’s proposal, Luxembourg and Sweden would lead the way with 40% reductions in emissions by 2030, compared to 2005 levels. Carbon Market Watch and Transport & Environment call on the European Parliament and member states to strengthen the EU’s largest climate legislation in line with the commitment made in Paris.