EU all but guaranteed to miss global deadline for climate targets

By Zia Weise | 11/13/2024 06:08 AM EST

Europeans want other countries to promise ambitious action but are behind on their own plans.

Steam and exhaust rise from the chemical and coking plants on a cold winter day in Oberhausen, Germany.

The EU has said ambitious 2035 goals are one of its top priorities for the global climate summit that kicked off Monday in Azerbaijan. Lukas Schulze/AFP via Getty Images

BRUSSELS — The European Union is set to miss a global deadline for new climate targets … while preparing to lecture the world about the importance of those goals.

By Feb. 10, governments are meant to send fresh plans for how they plan to tackle climate change to the United Nations. These documents, the backbone of the Paris Agreement, will set out each country’s efforts to cut planet-warming emissions by 2035.

The EU, which files a collective target for its 27 member countries, has said that pushing for ambitious 2035 plans is one of its top priorities for the global climate summit that kicked off in Azerbaijan on Monday. And with Donald Trump set to return to the White House, many are looking to the EU to expand its leadership role.

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But as European diplomats, ministers and leaders arrive in Baku, the bloc is setting itself up to file its own plan late — perhaps even very late, given the growing reluctance among some EU countries to commit to more ambitious climate targets.

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