Deal on Climate Neutrality at Stake in EU’s December Summit
The new European goal would be submitted early next year as a new contribution under the Paris Agreement, according to a document.
(Bloomberg) -- An agreement to make the European Union the first climate-neutral region by 2050 is set to be the biggest challenge the bloc’s leaders will face at their summit next month.
Zeroing-out greenhouse gases by the middle of the century, the cornerstone of the Green Deal pledged by incoming European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, will be among the top issues discussed by EU heads of government on Dec. 12-13, according to an EU document. While most countries endorse the unprecedented transformation, Poland leads a small group of eastern nations demanding financial assurances.
At their gathering in Brussels, the leaders “will aim to commit the EU to reaching climate neutrality by 2050 and identify the enabling framework allowing to reach that objective,” according to the first EU guidelines for the summit obtained by Bloomberg News.
A potential deal would cement EU leadership in the global fight against climate change at the time when envoys from more than 190 countries meet in Madrid at the United Nations annual climate talks.
Once endorsed, the new European goal would be submitted early next year as a new contribution under the Paris Agreement, according to the EU document. That would put the EU ahead of other major emitters, including China, India and Japan, which haven’t so far translated their voluntary Paris pledges into equally ambitious binding national measures.
Poland, supported by Hungary, the Czech Republic and Estonia, blocked progress on the deal in June amid concerns that it would put too much financial strain on the poorer economies. The commission estimates that the energy system and infrastructure will need an extra at 175 billion euros ($193 billion) to 290 billion euros a year in investment from 2030.
Estonia dropped its opposition in October. Poland, which relies on coal for most of its electricity, is seeking guarantees that EU funds will be directed at regions and member states where emissions are the highest and challenges with access to capital are the greatest.
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban predicted his country would need to invest 150 billion euros to decarbonize electricity generation, replace the use of natural gas and shift to electric transport and said that the goal could be reached only with a “major contribution” from the EU.
The new commission is poised on Dec. 11 to unveil more details on the Green Deal and present a document outlining a new Just Transition Fund, which von der Leyen vowed to create to help the most affected countries.
The Polish Economic Institute estimated that to be effective, the EU fund needs at least 10 billion to 20 billion euros annually in the 2021-2027 period. Under a mid-range scenario of 15 billion euros, Poland would be its largest beneficiary with 2.1 billion euros. Greece and France would rank next, with 1.7 billion euros and 1.6 billion euros, respectively.
To contact the reporters on this story: Ewa Krukowska in Brussels at ekrukowska@bloomberg.net;Nikos Chrysoloras in Brussels at nchrysoloras@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Reed Landberg at landberg@bloomberg.net, Peter Chapman, Jonathan Tirone
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