Yet he cautioned that the findings also reveal “the weakness of our carbon sink as a consequence of the deteriorating state of our forest,” which “is worrying and needs to be addressed.”
On its renewable power goals — which require installing energy sources like wind and solar — the EU is on pace to generate 41 percent of its energy from renewable sources by 2030, just shy of the 42.5 percent goal.
The assessment also calls on countries to better prepare and adapt society for climate change’s inevitable ramifications. Only a handful of countries are addressing increasing water scarcity, for instance.
And it bemoaned the work being done to end fossil fuel subsidies, saying “a list of existing fossil fuel subsidies, concrete timelines, and measures to phase them out are largely missing.”
Reaching all of these goals will be expensive, the report conceded. The EU will need roughly €570 billion annually until 2030 to get there, the Commission said. But it noted that the bloc spent €430 billion on fossil fuel imports in 2023.
That cash “could be redirected to invest in the clean transition toward a more autonomous and secure EU,” it said.
The EU will soon unveil a proposal to cut 90 percent of emissions by 2040 — although with some new “flexibilities” on how countries can get there.