First step towards achieving climate neutrality in Europe and creating tomorrow's prosperity

After months of negotiations, the European Parliament (represented by Swedish Social Democrat MEP Jytte Guteland and myself as chair of the Environment Committee) and the European Council (representing the environment ministers of the 27 Member States) have just agreed on the European Climate Law. This leads to several new measures that are largely based on proposals from the European Parliament: let’s take a closer look at what this law changes for the climate and for Europe.

The climate law sets the course for the next three decades to achieve climate neutrality by 2050 and comply with the Paris Agreement

This is the number one objective: enshrine in the law the objective of climate neutrality in 2050. Let's measure how far we come from: three years ago, only three European countries endorsed the principle, notably France. Today, all the members of the Council and the majority of the political groups in the European Parliament support it. We have even secured that after this date, our emissions will become negative. Europe's climate action will therefore not end in 2050. Another objective of the European climate law is to address the coming decades. We now have a higher target for 2030 and we have established the process to define a scientifically based 2040 target. In other words, the climate law maps out the path and milestones towards climate neutrality. No other major world power has done as much to date.

An "enhanced" 2030 target, a climate effort 2.5 times higher in the coming decade

Increasing the EU's 2030 emissions reduction target has obviously been the main battle of this negotiation. From now on, we will achieve a minimum reduction of our emissions close to 57% compared to 1990, both by directly reducing our emissions from transport, industry, etc., and by strengthening our "carbon sinks" such as forests, grasslands and wetlands, which are also vital reserves of biodiversity. Going from 55% to 57% means reducing a volume of CO2 equivalent to the annual emissions of Austria or Portugal.

More broadly, going from a target of at least 40% to an "enhanced" 2030 target of 57% means we will go two and a half times faster in reducing our emissions by 2030 than what we have done during the 2010-2020 decade. The effort is significant: if we compare it to a car driving at 50km/h, it would be like accelerating up to 125km/h!

A European High Council for the Climate

This was a strong demand from European NGOs: the climate law creates an equivalent of the French High Climate Council or the UK Climate Change Committee. This council will provide independent scientific advice on the consistency of European laws with the climate objectives that we just defined. The experience of these climate councils in European countries shows that each time they have contributed to strengthen ambition, to feed the democratic debate. Its existence at European level is an additional stone to ensure that European climate action is in line with the demands of scientists.

Coherence, knowledge, implementation: the climate law sets a control tower for public climate policies in Europe

The first element of this control tower for climate action: the climate law requires the European Commission to carry out a "climate check", i.e. a systemic consistency test of all its future proposals (including the budget or the next common agricultural policy for example) with climate neutrality. If a text proposed by the Commission is not aligned with climate neutrality, the Commission will have to publicly explain the economic, social, or technological reasons for its decision. No European country currently goes as far in climate self-discipline.

Secondly, this consistency requirement will also apply to the Council and the European Parliament. During the negotiations between the two co-legislators, the European Commission will provide an assessment of the climate impact of the MEPs' or Member States' proposals. This will create permanent pressure to counter the likely pressure from lobbies seeking to reduce the ambition of measures for their sector.

Thirdly, the Climate Law will bring together the sectors contributing the most to climate change and encourage them to establish their roadmap to climate neutrality and to deploy investments and technologies to achieve it. To avoid greenwashing, the European Commission will have a role in coordinating these roadmaps. The result: the creation of an economic ecosystem to unlock the massive investments needed for the transition. This measure echoes Title VII of the French climate and resilience law which includes a similar process.

A carbon budget for Europe

Another important step forward in the climate law: for the first time in Europe, a carbon budget, i.e. the total amount of emissions not to be exceeded to meet our climate commitments, will be created. Greta Thunberg and the FridaysforFuture youth movements have consistently called for such a science-based tool. We have secured that this carbon budget will be linked to the definition of 2040 target, something which may seem far away on paper but that will already be proposed by the European Commission in 2024.

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It was a tough fight. The most conservative states in the Council have sought to reduce the ambition of the climate law and like any European agreement, it is a compromise. But this is how we build the consensus needed to transform our economies and societies towards a zero-carbon world. The Climate Law is a cornerstone of the Green Deal. Its adoption paves the way for the reform of 50 European laws by the end of 2022. A major step has been taken for the building a new model of prosperity.