EU countries have struck a deal to pursue tougher climate policies despite fears among some member states that a rush to shore up energy supplies after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine would weaken Europe’s environmental ambitions.
A ban on the sale of combustion engines by 2035, a phaseout of permits allowing polluting industries a certain amount of carbon emissions and a crackdown on products linked to deforestation were among proposals agreed early on Wednesday in Luxembourg by environment ministers from the 27 EU member states.
After 16 hours of talks, the agreement marks an important step forward for Europe’s ambitious Green Deal climate law through which the bloc aims to become carbon-neutral by 2050. But campaigners said caveats added by member states would make it difficult for the EU, the world’s third-largest emitter of greenhouse gases, to achieve its target of reducing its emissions by 55 per cent by 2030 compared with 1990 levels.