Any proposal to increase the EU’s emission reduction targets must be based on an impact assessment

Today marks a major milestone under the Green Deal with the publication of the European Climate Law, which legally enshrines the 2050 climate-neutrality target. The European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) Group has some serious reservations about the Commission's proposal to revise all post-2030 climate targets via delegated acts.

The ECR Group is opposed to an increase in the EU’s current Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) under the Paris Agreement, as we are still to implement laws adopted based on the current binding target to cut emissions by at least 40 percent below 1990 levels by 2030.

As ECR MEP Pietro Fiocchi, Member of the Committee on Environment, Public Health and Food Safety states:

“We believe that any proposal to increase the EU’s emission reduction targets must be based on an impact assessment to evaluate the associated socio-economic risks, and be aligned with the Paris Agreement’s cycle of planning, implementing, and reviewing progress on Parties’ NDCs.

“The ECR Group will therefore intensely analyse and challenge the Climate Law proposal; the long-term credibility and value of pragmatic, evidence-based, European policy-making depends on it.

“We also consider it is essential that the EU acts in a unified and consensus-based manner when striving to achieve its climate objectives, which fully accounts for the concerns of lower-income Member States.

“Instead of re-writing the book on co-decision in order to promote more climate symbolism and rhetoric, the EU must instead prioritise real action through good law-making, meeting our existing commitments in accordance with the Paris Agreement, and leveraging our diplomatic influence to deepen third-country cooperation and raise ambition globally.”