On 8 October, the European Parliament adopted the position it will take in the negotiations of the forthcoming EU climate law. The plenary voted in favour of a 60% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 compared to 1990 levels. This goes further than the Commission’s position, released in September, which called for a reduction of at least 55% by 2030. Once the Council (which represents the Member States) has adopted its own position on the issue, the three institutions will enter negotiations to draft the final climate law, which intends to turn the political objective of achieving a carbon-neutral EU by 2050 into a legal obligation.

The position adopted by the European Parliament would require not only the EU as a whole but also all Member State to become climate-neutral by 2050, and it states that the EU and the Member States should be climate-negative after 2050 (removing more greenhouse gases than they emit). Furthermore, the proposal calls for sufficient funding to achieve the stated goals, and it stipulates that all fossil fuel subsidies should be phased out by 2025.