Tough lower carbon targets expected for Europe

The approaching COP 21 talks in Paris have focused the minds of Europe’s energy producers and consumers on future regulations and their own competitiveness

European negotiators at the UN-backed climate change talks (COP21), which start in Paris at the end of November, are expected to remain true to the form of previous meetings. They will push for tougher emissions reductions targets than most of the rest of the world is likely to accept. In September, EU ministers agreed that the bloc would call in Paris for measures to achieve a 40% cut in global greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 compared with 1990 levels, and a binding 30% target for renewable energy. It is also pushing for global emissions to peak no later than 2020. Poland and other eastern European nations, whose power industries are heavily reliant on coal, the most polluting fossil fuel,