Analysis: New EU emissions plan is even less ambitious than ‘woeful’ UK climate efforts

Europe is still thinking small on the biggest issue facing the planet, writes Harry Cockburn

Can European climate goals be matched with the action to meet them? (Getty)

After months of internal wrangling, the European Union has set out new legally binding emissions targets.

The new legislation has signed into law a target to reduce net EU emissions by 55 per cent by 2030, from 1990 levels, and hit net zero by 2050.

It comes two months after the UK set out its own interim legally binding emissions target - to slash emissions by 78 per cent of 1990 levels by 2035. Back in 2019, the UK became the first major economy to set a legally binding net zero emissions goal for 2050.