Combating climate change
The EU is among the leading major economies in terms of tackling greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. In 2020, EU GHG emissions were down by 31% from 1990 levels, exceeding the EU’s target of reducing emissions by 20% by 2020. Led by international treaties, such as the Kyoto Protocol, the EU has adopted many climate policies, in particular the EU emissions trading system. In 2019, the Commission presented the European Green Deal. Since then, many measures have been adopted to achieve the EU’s GHG emission reduction target of 55% by 2030 and to decarbonise its economy by 2050, in line with the Paris Agreement.
Legal basis
Article 191 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union makes combating climate change an explicit objective of EU environmental policy.
General background
Human activities, such as burning fossil fuels, deforestation and farming, lead to the emission of GHGs – carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), nitrous oxide (N2O) and fluorocarbons. These GHGs trap heat that is radiated from the Earth’s surface, thereby causing global warming. According to the sixth synthesis report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the best estimates of the average increase in global temperature by the end of this century vary from 1.4 °C to 4.4 °C.
Global warming has led and will lead to more extreme weather events (e.g. floods and droughts), melting ice caps, biodiversity loss, plant diseases and pests, food and fresh water shortages, desertification and displacements of people due to disasters. The risks of irreversible and catastrophic change could greatly increase if global warming exceeds a 2 °C – or even a 1.5 °C – increase above pre-industrial levels.
Aiming to ‘prevent dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climate system’, the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) was adopted in 1992. It was, along with the Convention on Biological Diversity and the UN Convention to Combat Desertification, one of the three landmark conventions of the historic ‘Earth Summit’ held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in 1992. The UNFCCC became the foundation for further international climate action, such as the Kyoto Protocol – the first international treaty to set legally binding targets to cut GHG emissions. The protocol was adopted in 1997 and ratified by 192 Parties. It committed industrialised countries to reduce their GHG emissions in line with agreed individual targets, under the principle of ‘common but differentiated responsibility and respective capabilities’.
The first universal legally binding agreement to combat climate change was adopted in 2015 at the 21st Conference of the Parties (COP21) to the UNFCCC, held in Paris. The Paris Agreement strives to keep the increase in the average global temperature ‘well below 2 °C’, while trying to limit the temperature increase to 1.5 °C above pre-industrial levels. To accomplish this goal, Parties are aiming to reach a global peak in GHG emissions as soon as possible, and to achieve net-zero emissions in the second half of this century. Mitigation (e.g. increasing renewable energy use) and adaptation (e.g. water conservation, crop rotation, flood protection and awareness-raising) are recognised as global challenges, along with the importance of addressing ‘loss and damage’ associated with the adverse effects of climate change. The EU formally ratified the Paris Agreement on 5 October 2016, thus enabling its entry into force on 4 November 2016.
Objectives and achievements
A. Building the EU climate policy framework
Through its 2030 climate and energy framework, initiated in 2014, before the Paris Agreement, the EU committed itself to reducing GHG emissions by at least 40% below 1990 levels by 2030, including improving energy efficiency and increasing the share of renewable energy sources. The 2030 framework is a follow-up to the ‘20-20-20 targets’ agreed on in 2007 by EU leaders for 2020: a 20% reduction in GHG emissions, a 20% increase in the share of renewable energy in final energy consumption and a 20% reduction in total EU primary energy consumption (compared to 1990 levels). These targets were all translated into binding legislative measures, which were also linked to the EU’s targets under the Kyoto Protocol.
The EU Emissions Trading System Directive (Directive (EU) 2018/410) established the first and still the largest international carbon market, and is a key EU policy instrument for fighting climate change. Set up in 2005, the emissions trading system (ETS) is based on the ‘cap and trade’ principle. A ‘cap’ is set on the total amount of GHG emissions that can be emitted by around 10 000 installations (factories, power stations, etc.) included in the scheme. Each installation buys or receives ‘emission allowances’ auctioned by the Member States. These credits – each corresponding to one tonne of CO2 – can be traded with other installations if unused. Over time, the overall amount of allowances is progressively reduced. Two EU funds have been developed specifically for climate action: a modernisation fund for improving energy efficiency and an innovation fund supporting innovative energy technologies. Additionally, Switzerland and the EU have agreed to link their emissions trading systems.
Emissions from sectors not covered by the ETS, such as road transport, waste, agriculture and buildings, are subject to binding annual GHG emission reduction targets for each Member State, laid out in the Effort Sharing Regulation (Regulation (EU) 2018/842). Parliament and the Council agreed on targets for 2021-2030 to help reach the EU’s goal of a 30% GHG reduction from these sectors compared to 2005 and to contribute to the achievement of the objectives of the Paris Agreement. Furthermore, a regulation on land use, land use change and forestry (Regulation (EU) 2018/841) requires each Member State to ensure that emissions from land use, land use change and forestry do not exceed removals. In other words, forests, croplands and grasslands have to be managed sustainably in order to absorb as much GHG from the atmosphere as possible, and at least as much as the sector emits (‘no-debit-rule’), and thus make an important contribution to the fight against climate change.
The Renewable Energy Directive (Directive (EU) 2018/2001) sought to ensure that, by 2030, renewable energy such as solar power, wind, hydroelectric power and biomass would make up an initial target of at least 32% of the EU’s total energy consumption in terms of electricity generation, transport, heating and cooling. Each Member State is required to adopt its own national renewable energy action plan, including sectoral targets.
The 2018 revision of the Directive on Energy Efficiency (Directive (EU) 2018/2002) set a 2030 energy efficiency target of 32.5% for the EU (calculated using the 2007 reference baseline scenario), with a clause for upward revision by 2023. In addition, the revised Directive on the Energy Performance of Buildings (Directive (EU) 2018/844) included measures to accelerate the rate of building renovation and the move towards more energy-efficient systems, and intelligent energy management systems.
The Regulation on the Governance of the Energy Union and Climate Action (Regulation (EU) 2018/1999) implements a transparent governance process to track progress towards the EU’s energy and climate action objectives, including monitoring and reporting rules. Member States were obliged to adopt integrated national energy and climate plans for the 2021-2030 period. The governance process also provides an opportunity to update the plans every two years to reflect experience and to take advantage of new opportunities for the remainder of the decade.
The directive on the geological storage of carbon dioxide (Directive 2009/31/EC) established a legal framework for carbon capture and storage technology, which separates CO2 from atmospheric emissions (resulting from industrial processes), compresses the CO2 and transports it to a location where it can be stored. According to the IPCC, this process could remove 80-90% of CO2 emissions from fossil fuel-burning power plants. However, the implementation of the envisaged demonstration projects in Europe has proven more difficult than initially foreseen, with high costs being one of the main barriers.
CO2 emissions standards for new passenger cars registered in the EU (Regulation (EU) 2019/631) set out the limits with which such vehicles had to comply from 2021, with an EU fleet-wide target of 95g CO2/km for cars. A directive on fuel quality (Directive (EU) 2015/1513) aimed to reduce the GHG intensity of fuels by 6% by 2020. This was to be achieved by, among other measures, the use of biofuels, which also had to meet certain sustainability criteria.
A regulation on the monitoring, reporting and verification of CO2 emissions from ships (Regulation (EU) 2015/757) obligated large ships to monitor and annually report their verified CO2 emissions released on their way to and from EU ports and within those ports, along with other relevant information.
Following bans on chlorofluorocarbons in the 1980s to stop the depletion of the ozone layer, fluorinated gases (F-gases) are today used as substitutes in a range of industrial applications such as air conditioning and refrigeration, since they do not harm the ozone layer. However, they may have a global warming potential of up to 25 000 times higher than that of CO2. A regulation on the use of F-gases (Regulation (EU) No 517/2014) aimed to control them and ban their use in new air conditioning appliances and refrigerators by 2022-2025, thereby setting the pace for a global phase-out.
B. The European Green Deal
In 2019, the Commission presented the European Green Deal, an ambitious package of measures designed to enable the EU to become carbon-neutral by 2050. The measures, which were accompanied by a roadmap of key actions for implementing the European Green Deal, range from ambitious cuts to emissions, to investing in cutting-edge research and innovation, and preserving Europe’s natural environment. Supported by investments in green technologies, sustainable solutions and new businesses, the European Green Deal also aimed to act as a new EU growth strategy to transform the EU into a sustainable and competitive economy. The involvement and commitment of the public and of all stakeholders was crucial to its success.
Among the key actions adopted under the European Green Deal is the European Climate Law (Regulation (EU) 2021/1119), to ensure a climate-neutral EU by 2050. In particular, it increased the 2030 target to cut GHG emissions to at least 55% from 1990 levels. Additional adopted key actions are the Just Transition Fund and the revised guidelines for trans-European energy infrastructure. The Commission also published communications on: the Sustainable Europe Investment Plan; the European Climate Pact; an EU strategy for energy system integration and a hydrogen strategy for a climate-neutral Europe; and a new EU strategy on adaptation to climate change.
In 2021, the Commission put forward a package of legislative proposals entitled ‘Fit for 55’. This package, which consists of new laws and amendments to existing legislation, aims to ensure the EU meets its target of reducing GHG emissions by 55% by 2030 and delivering the transformational change that is needed across the economy, society and industry on the way to achieving climate neutrality by 2050.
In December 2022, Parliament and the Council reached an agreement on more ambitious measures to reform the ETS: an emissions reduction target of 62% by 2030 compared to 2005 levels. The Fit for 55 package also enhanced modernisation and innovation funds, and introduced the new carbon border adjustment mechanism (CBAM) to counter carbon leakage – the risk that production in sectors covered by the ETS will be moved outside the EU due to the cost of participating in the ETS.
In 2023, the ETS was extended to maritime transport activities and requirements were set for cleaner fuels for aviation and the maritime sector. A regulation on renewable and low-carbon fuels in maritime transport (Regulation (EU) 2023/1805) aims to reduce shipping emissions by 20% by 2035 and by 80% by 2050. Furthermore, at least 2% of the EU’s shipping fuels will need to come from renewable fuels of non-biological origin from 2030. For aviation, by 2025, 2% of fuel was required to be sustainable (6% by 2030 and 70% by 2050). From 2030, 1.2% of fuels must also be synthetic fuels, rising to 35% in 2050.
Aviation emissions are also covered by the ETS (Directive (EU) 2023/958 on aviation’s contribution to the EU’s emission reduction target), although the current exemption from the ETS for intercontinental flights has been extended until the start of 2027. The first phase of the Carbon Reduction and Offsetting Scheme for International Aviation, under the International Civil Aviation Organization, began in 2024.
The amended Effort Sharing Regulation (Regulation (EU) 2023/857) implements a collective emission reduction of 40% by all relevant sectors by 2030 compared to 2005 levels, with a revised target for each Member State. To support Member States in their efforts to cut emissions from buildings, road transport and certain industrial sectors, a new separate emissions trading system – ETS2 (outlined in Directive (EU) 2023/959) – was created with the aim of starting in 2027. ETS2 was accompanied by a new Social Climate Fund to ease its possible costs to the most affected vulnerable groups.
Furthermore, the amended regulation on land use, land use change and forestry (Regulation (EU) 2023/839) sets out a new 2030 target to increase EU carbon sinks by 15%.
The revision of the Energy Efficiency Directive (Directive (EU) 2023/1791) set an ambitious EU energy efficiency target of an 11.7% reduction in final energy consumption by 2030 compared to 2020. The updated Renewable Energy Directive (Directive (EU) 2023/2413) increased the overall target of renewables in the EU’s energy mix to 42.5%, in order to accelerate their uptake. The revision of the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive upgrades the existing regulatory framework, while providing Member States with the flexibility needed to take into account the differences in the building stock across Europe. The revised directive sets out new ambitious targets: all new buildings should be zero-emission by 2030 and new buildings occupied or owned by the public sector should be zero-emission by 2028. Each Member State will adopt its own national trajectory to reduce the average primary energy use of residential buildings by 16% by 2030 and by 20-22% by 2035.
Methane is the second biggest contributor to climate change after CO2. Tackling methane emissions is therefore essential in reaching the EU’s 2030 climate targets and 2050 climate neutrality goal. A regulation on the reduction of methane emissions in the energy sector (Regulation (EU) 2024/1787) obligates the gas, oil and coal industries to properly measure, monitor, report and verify their methane emissions and take measures to reduce them.
Aiming to save the equivalent of 40 million tonnes of CO2 emissions by 2030, the revised F-gas Regulation (Regulation (EU) 2024/573) will completely ban hydrofluorocarbons from 2050, having added a sharp cut to their availability in 2025. In addition, a regulation on substances that deplete the ozone layer (Regulation (EU) 2024/590) introduces stricter and simplified measures to eliminate the remaining use within the EU of such substances.
In 2022, the Commission adopted a proposal for an EU voluntary framework for certifying carbon removals. The ensuing regulation (Regulation (EU) 2024/3012) introduces, among other things, a certification framework for permanent carbon removals, carbon farming and carbon storage in products. It also aims to facilitate investment in innovative carbon removal technologies and sustainable carbon farming solutions and addresses greenwashing.
In April 2023, Parliament and the Council adopted a regulation on CO2 emission standards for cars and vans (Regulation (EU) 2023/851). This specifies an EU fleet-wide emission reduction target of 55% for new cars and 50% for new vans by 2030. They also introduced a 30% CO2emission reduction target for new lorries, with an intermediate target of 15% by 2025. In April 2024, Parliament and Council adopted new rules reducing emissions from passenger cars, vans, buses, trucks and trailers. On 1 April 2025, the Commission proposed a targeted amendment to the 2023 regulation setting CO2 emission performance standards for new cars and vans, to give car manufacturers more flexibility to comply with the CO2 targets for 2025, 2026 and 2027.
In February 2025, the Commission presented the Clean Industrial Deal, which brings together climate and competitiveness under an overarching growth strategy. In addition, a new package of proposals was put forward to simplify EU rules, boost competitiveness, and unlock additional investment capacity.
In July 2025, the Commission proposed an amendment to the European Climate Law, to set a 2040 climate target for the EU as an intermediary step towards reaching the 2050 climate neutrality goals. It recommends reducing the EU’s net GHG emissions by 90% by 2040 relative to 1990 levels. After complicated negotiations, on 5 November 2025, the Council agreed to a headline target of 90%, which comprises an EU domestic reduction of net GHG emissions by 85% and the possibility of using high-quality international carbon credits for up to 5% of EU net emissions.
Role of the European Parliament
In climate policy, Parliament has traditionally defended positions that add ambition to EU actions, when participating in interinstitutional negotiations with the Council as co-legislator.
In its 2015 resolution entitled ‘Towards a new international climate agreement in Paris’, in view of the Paris Agreement at COP21, Parliament called for an ambitious, global, legally binding agreement limiting the temperature increase to below 2 °C. Parliament also reiterated the urgent need to ‘effectively regulate and cap emissions from international aviation and shipping’.
In a historic vote in October 2016, Parliament gave its consent to the EU’s ratification of the Paris Agreement, which led the way for the agreement to come into effect.
In view of COP24, held in December 2018, Parliament called, in its resolution of 25 October 2018, for an increase of the EU’s 2030 GHG emission reduction target to 55%. Moreover, Parliament considered that the profound and most likely irreversible impacts of a 2 °C rise in global temperatures might be avoided if the more ambitious Paris target of 1.5 °C was pursued. This would require the still rising global GHG emissions to fall to net zero by 2050 at the latest. This is why Parliament called on the Commission to propose a long-term mid-century net-zero GHG emission strategy for the EU. The Commission made this demand one of the goals of the European Green Deal in 2019.
In 2018, Parliament adopted a resolution on EU climate diplomacy, in which it emphasised the EU’s responsibility to lead on climate action, as well as conflict prevention. It stressed that EU diplomatic capacities should be strengthened in order to promote climate action globally, support the implementation of the Paris Agreement and prevent climate change-related conflict.
In 2019, Parliament declared a climate emergency and urged all Member States to commit to net-zero GHG emissions by 2050. Parliament also urged the Commission to ensure that all relevant legislative and budgetary proposals were fully aligned with the objective of limiting global warming to under 1.5 °C.
In 2020, Parliament adopted its negotiating mandate on the European Climate Law, requesting that the 2030 emission reduction target be increased to 60%. Although the interinstitutional agreement reached on 21 April 2021 between Parliament and the Council confirmed the 55% target proposed by the Commission, Parliament succeeded in boosting the role and contribution of carbon removal, which has the potential to translate that target into 57%. Moreover, in line with Parliament’s mandate, the Commission was asked to submit a proposal for a 2040 target at the latest six months after the first global stocktake of the Paris Agreement, taking into account the EU’s projected indicative GHG budget. Finally, given the importance of independent scientific advice, the European Scientific Advisory Board on Climate Change was set up to assess whether the policy is consistent and to monitor progress, as suggested by Parliament. In a June 2023 report on climate targets and GHG budgets, the European Scientific Advisory Board on Climate Change provides the EU institutions with a science-based estimate of a 2040 climate target and of an EU GHG emissions ‘budget’ (cumulative emissions not to be exceeded) for the period 2030-2050. According to this report, the EU must strive for net emissions reductions of 90-95% by 2040, relative to 1990 levels.
In September 2022, Parliament adopted a resolution on the consequences of drought, fire and other extreme weather phenomena. It aimed to further strengthen the EU’s efforts to fight climate change.
In its 2023 resolution on COP28 in Dubai, Parliament called for increased climate fund contributions, for the end of all fossil fuel subsidies by 2025 at the latest, and for renewable energy to be tripled and energy efficiency doubled by 2030. Moreover, it acknowledged the links between biodiversity loss and climate, and underlined the importance of restoring nature.
In its 2024 resolution on COP29 in Baku, Parliament called on all countries to agree on a post-2025 new collective quantified goal on climate finance. It also encouraged them to phase out all direct and indirect fossil fuels subsidies and to reallocate these resources instead to climate action.
In its 2025 resolution on COP30 in Belém, Brazil, Parliament underlined the need for the EU to remain a leader in international climate negotiations, and emphasised that all sectors must contribute to reducing emissions and achieving climate neutrality. It stressed the need for the EU to continue to set ambitious goals for its climate policy, in line with the agreed EU and international targets, and to prioritise cost-effectiveness, the competitiveness of the European economy, social inclusion, and a high level of environmental protection. MEPs want all countries to contribute their fair share in providing adequate climate finance, addressing debt crises in many climate-vulnerable countries and simplifying climate finance procedures for developing countries.
The resolution reiterates the urgent need for the EU to end its fossil fuel dependence, phase out related subsidies and accelerate its energy transition. It also calls on the international community to pay increased attention to the climate impact of conflicts.
For further information on this topic, please visit the website of Parliament’s Committee on the Environment, Climate and Food Safety.
Kristi Polluveer / Judith BÜRGER