The eventual conclusions were agreed unchanged from the draft text prepared by diplomats this week — though few countries were entirely satisfied with the outcome. “Classic balance, everyone equally unhappy,” one diplomat said.
Members of several governments were left wondering what difference the agreement would make for the 2040 climate target. Ministers had postponed their vote on the new goal in September, after some of the EU’s largest countries refused to approve the law without their leaders having a say.
But the text agreed Thursday is deliberately vague, and stops short of endorsing the 2040 goal. That target, as proposed by the European Commission, would reduce the EU’s planet-warming emissions by up to 90 percent below 1990 levels. Ministers are due to reconvene and cast a vote on Nov. 4 — “groundhog day,” a second diplomat said.
A third EU diplomat said they did “not see how the cards are any different” than in September, when ministers first tried to vote on the target. Leaders may just have “delayed the crisis” to Nov. 4, the diplomat added.
Yet a fourth and fifth diplomat said they felt the discussion had sufficiently reassured key countries, particularly France and Germany, to enable them to support the target in the upcoming vote.
The leaders’ agreement sets out “the enabling conditions” to achieve the climate target, the fourth diplomat said, with details to be worked out ahead of the Nov. 4 meeting.