EU environment ministers scrapped a commitment to lift its greenhouse gas emissions reduction target after several countries held back during many hours of negotiations over the proposals the bloc will present to the upcoming UN climate summit.
Poland, Hungary and Italy objected to a pledge to increase the bloc’s emissions reduction target from 55 per cent by 2030 to 57 per cent, compared with 1990 levels, according to diplomats involved in the discussions that concluded late on Monday in Luxembourg.
There were also fraught negotiations over references to phase out “unabated” fossil fuels, that would give an opening for countries to continue burning polluted fuels so long as the emissions are captured, but they were ultimately deleted from the text.