COP27: EU vows to increase climate ambition

Reuters :
The European Union plans to update its emissions-cutting target under the Paris climate accord, the EU climate policy chief told the COP27 summit on Tuesday, with the upgrade expected before next year’s United Nations summit. The announcement by the world’s third biggest polluter – after China and the United States – attempts to convince others that the 27-country EU is sticking to its commitments to fight climate change, even as it battles an energy crisis.
“The EU stands ready to update our NDC,” EU climate chief Frans Timmermans told the COP27 summit in Egypt, referring to the bloc’s Nationally Determined Contribution, or target to reduce emissions in line with the 2015 Paris agreement to curb global warming.
“So don’t let anybody tell you, here or outside, that the EU is backtracking,” he said. The EU has among the most ambitious climate change policies of major emitters, having committed to cut its net greenhouse gas emissions 55% by 2030, from 1990 levels, and eliminate them by 2050. EU countries and lawmakers are negotiating legislation to deliver those goals, which Timmermans said should be finished by the end of the year.