Environmental campaigners have taken a first step towards legally challenging the European Commission over a policy to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, which they said fell short of Europe’s “fair share” in combating climate change.
Climate Action Network (CAN) Europe and the non-profit Global Legal Action Network said on Thursday they had formally asked Brussels to revise a law setting out how fast EU countries must cut emissions in sectors including agriculture and transport.
CAN Europe Policy Coordinator Romain Didi said the law, and the EU climate target it was designed to deliver, fell short of Europe’s “fair share” in global efforts to fight climate change, when the continent’s historical emissions were taken into account.
“The EU needs to take into account its historical responsibility and its capacity to act, to ensure that it does enough to meet the 1.5C goal of the Paris Agreement,” Didi told Reuters.
The European Commission did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The Commission has 16 weeks to respond to the request, after which the groups could launch a legal challenge at the EU’s top court.
The EU law in question is one of more than a dozen policies designed to reduce the EU’s net emissions by 55 per cent by 2030 from 1990 levels. That target is one of the most ambitious climate aims of any major economy.
The campaigners want the EU to lift its target to 65 per cent.
All EU countries have approved the collective 55 per cent emissions target, which is fixed into law. When Brussels first proposed the goal in 2020, it said the 55 per cent cut would put countries on track for the EU’s long-term target to have zero net emissions by 2050.
A draft document, seen by Reuters last month, showed the EU expects to overachieve its 2030 target and cut emissions by 57 per cent, if countries comply with recently-passed climate policies.