EU leaders to aim for final climate deal ‘in early 2020’

(EurActiv, 13 Jun 2019) Talks on a climate plan for 2050 should wrap up by the end of this year in view of final adoption in early 2020, according to the draft conclusions of an EU summit taking place next week in Brussels.

EU leaders are set to grant the incoming Finnish EU Presidency a mandate during next week’s summit to ramp up talks on an ambitious plan to make the bloc carbon neutral by 2050.

In draft conclusions obtained by EURACTIV, the EU’s 28 national governments and the European Commission are invited “to advance work on the conditions, the incentives and the enabling framework to be put in place to support the fair transition to a climate-neutral EU”.

“The European Council will finalise its guidance before the end of the year with a view to the adoption of the EU’s long-term strategy in early 2020,” the conclusions add.

The “early 2020” date is not a firm deadline for EU member states to reach agreement, one EU official told EURACTIV. Instead, it is meant to focus minds ahead of the final summit of the year in December.

Timing is everything

Under the terms of the Paris Agreement, the EU has to submit a long-term plan “by 2020”, which technically means the bloc has until December 2020 to reach an agreement.

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EurActiv, 13 Jun 2019: EU leaders to aim for final climate deal ‘in early 2020’