Response to EU Environment Council’s failure to adopt a 2035 NDC target

The EU Environment Council of 18 September has failed to adopt a 2035 target for the European Union ahead of next week’s high-level event in New York where countries are tabling their targets.

Instead, it has published a non-binding statement of intent for an indicative target range of 66.25%-72.5% emissions reduction by 2035 below 1990 levels.

It is a concern that the European Union has on the one hand expressed its “unwavering commitment" to the Paris Agreement and its goal of limiting the global temperature increase to 1.5˚C, and yet appears unable to adopt a target let alone an indicative range that comes close to the greater than 77% reduction needed for 1.5° alignment.

The political damage from this failure is already evident, with the Australian Prime Minister pointing to the weak indicative range from the European Union as support for his own weak target.

The EU needs to set a much stronger 2035 target of at least 77% reduction (incl. LULUCF) below 1990 emission levels and deliver steep cuts between 2030 and 2035 To align with the Paris agreement 1.5° limit which it so strongly supports.

This is the level needed for the EU to send a strong signal ahead of COP30 that it is taking a leadership role to confront the ambition headwinds head on. The range put forward by the Council risks locking in slower progress at a time when the window for meaningful climate action is rapidly closing.

The difference between the proposal on the table and what’s needed for 1.5°C is not just a numerical gap; it’s a crucial test of the EU's political will and its climate credibility.

With the final decision pushed to a special European Council meeting in later October, just before COP30 in November, there’s still a chance for Europe's leaders to raise the bar and deliver the ambition that the planet urgently requires to combat, as the EU rightly states, climate change as an existential threat.

The EU must seize this moment and deliver a Paris-compatible NDC that puts it firmly on the path to 1.5°C. At a time when global leadership is urgently needed, the EU cannot afford to be missing in action.

Media team:
press@climateactiontracker.org