BRUSSELS -- The European Union is attempting to forge new climate goals on Tuesday before the U.N.climate talks in Brazil starting next week.Ministers from across the 27-nation bloc are meeting in Brussels to try and get at least 15 to align their nationally-determined emissions targets in order to have a stronger negotiating position during the COP30 summit in Belém.“We need to show to the world that we are leaders in climate change.
We need to deliver adequate signals for investors.Today’s the day," Spanish climate minister Sara Aagesen said before the meeting.The EU's long-held leadership of action on climate is under threat by domestic and international pressure.
Wildfires, heat waves, and floods have disrupted life across Europe, spurring calls for more climate action.But crises like Russia's war in Ukraine, and a newly volatile relationship with the United States, have increased political and economic pressure to curtail flagship environmental policies.A recent weakening of a deforestation law by the European Commission, the EU's executive arm, disturbed environmentalists.
They worried that it signaled a deeper disenchantment with green priorities by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.In February, she had announced an economic policy that some said eroded her 2019 Green Deal.
But von der Leyen said in September that “the world can count on Europe’s climate leadership” and pledged that the EU is “on our way to climate neutrality” and would slash carbon emissions by 90% by 2040.She has linked climate investment to sovreignty and defense, arguing that a self-reliant Europe can better face threats like disruptive tariffs or export controls, armed conflict and environmental disasters.Many EU governments have shifted to the right since the Paris Agreement in 2015.
Some see climate regulations as shackling the economy, while others say Europe will either make and sell renewables or be forced to buy energy or green products from cou...