EU set to agree new climate target within weeks

The European Union aims to agree its new climate target in the coming weeks, according to Teresa Ribera, Spain’s Exectuive Vice-President of the EU Commission, speaking to Reuters during New York Climate Week.

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“I think that it will be solved in the coming weeks,” Ribera said, adding that the EU intends to stick to its climate commitments because they make sense not only environmentally, but also socially and economically — even as the United States pulls back from efforts to curb global warming.

“We intend to fulfil our commitments and our pathways,” she explained, “and the discussion is how to combine the competitiveness measures so as to come up with a consistent pathway to the full decarbonisation that is targeted by 2050.”

Ribera warned that postponing climate action would be a “huge mistake”: “Not only for climate reasons, not only for social reasons, but also for economic reasons. It’s just madness. It is committing suicide.” The EU hopes to present its updated plan ahead of the UN climate talks scheduled for November in Brazil.