BRUSSELS — Germany’s incoming government will throw its weight behind an ambitious EU climate target for 2040, but only if the European Commission allows countries to offset a portion of their planet-warming emissions instead of slashing them.
The stance was revealed Wednesday in a coalition agreement between the center-right Christian Democrats (CDU), which won February’s snap election, and the center-left Social Democrats (SPD). The SPD’s 300,000-plus members must still approve the 144-page deal.
In the agreement, the two parties recommit to Germany’s 2045 climate neutrality target and give contingent backing to the EU executive’s recommended 90 percent emissions-cutting goal for 2040. Brussels has delayed legislation to enshrine the new target after struggling to find sufficient support from governments and lawmakers.
Yet Berlin’s support comes with the radical condition that EU countries must be allowed to incorporate international carbon credits in their climate efforts — meaning that instead of reducing pollution at home, they could pay for emissions cuts in non-EU countries and count those toward their own climate balance.
