EU ministers agree national climate goals ahead of U.N. talks

BRUSSELS – 13 October 2017:EU environment ministers agreed national emissions-reduction targets on Friday in a push to show how the bloc is delivering on its climate goals ahead of United Nations talks next months to fight global warming.

The European Union, the world's third-largest emitter and a key broker of the 2015 Paris climate pact to curb greenhouse gases, sees adopting the legislation as key to its credibility and influence on how the global climate rules are written.

It assigns EU nations targets for slashing greenhouse gas emissions ranging from zero to 40 percent to achieve the bloc's overall goal of at least 40 percent below 1990 levels by 2030.

Ministers voiced hope agreement on the politically sensitive targets, which will require an economic shift to low-carbon technology in big employment transport, farming, waste and building sectors, can help unlock tough talks on other climate files.

Hours of talks over reforms to the EU Emissions Trading System (ETS), a cap-and-trade permit system to regulate industry pollution, ended without an agreement early on Friday.

Environment ministers were also struggling to agree on rules on how to manage forests, whose role as carbon sinks is promoted by the Paris pact among 195 nations.

"We must lose not sight of the signal this legislation will send internationally," British minister Therese Coffey, whose country is due to exit the bloc before the laws comes into force, told her counterparts. "This is vital for EU credibility."

But environmental campaigners said the accord, which still needs to be negotiate with European Parliament, did not go far enough to curb the worst effects of rising temperatures, blamed for causing more floods, heat waves and rising sea levels.

They criticised measures aimed at helping lower-income EU countries meet their obligations.

"The agreed position is far from adequate," said Gerben-Jan Gerbrandy, a Dutch deputy who will represent Parliament in talks to reach a final law. "Some EU governments would have to undertake little real efforts on the ground."