Article by Giulia Casula
The European Commission has proposed revising EU climate legislation, which aims to achieve climate neutrality by 2050. Specifically, it has suggested setting an interim target for 2040, reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 90% compared to 1990 levels.
This is another intermediate step after the previously agreed 55% emissions cut by 2035. The Commission intends to accelerate the achievement of the targets while introducing elements of “flexibility,” such as the use of international carbon credits from non-EU countries. Specifically, these countries will be able to contribute up to 3% of the reduction, starting from 2036 onwards. According to the European Commission, this system will offer “certainty to investors and innovation, strengthen the industrial leadership of EU companies, and increase Europe’s energy security.”
Who’s for and who’s against the new EU climate plan?
The proposal will be discussed in the European Parliament and the Council, but it has already attracted criticism and comment. On the one hand, there are those who reject it, such as the League, which called it “yet another act of madness” on the part of Ursula von der Leyen, accusing the Commission President of wanting to “destroy Italian and European industry.” Even within Forza Italia, which in the EU sits within the EPP, of which von der Leyen herself is a member, they consider the 90% emissions cut by 2040 “unrealistic.”