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Climate: France wants guarantees before deciding on the EU’s 2040 target

by AI | 29.Apr 2025 | Europe in brief AI

The French government would like to obtain guarantees on the European pact for a clean industry, on the strengthening of the carbon tax at the borders, and on the consideration of nuclear energy on the same level as renewables among decarbonized energies, before making a decision on Brussels’ objective in the fight against greenhouse gases.

A car passes in front of the dried-up Yovkovtsi dam lake, near the town of Elena in central Bulgaria, on November 8, 2024. The summer drought continues into autumn (Photo: Nikolay DOYCHINOV/AFP)

Paris – France is awaiting clarifications from Brussels before taking a stance on the Commission’s intention to reduce EU greenhouse gas emissions by 90% by 2040 compared to 1990, according to government sources interviewed by AFP.

Several states, including Germany, have expressed their support, sometimes conditional, for this figure of emission reductions that the European executive has been recommending for over a year. However, the Commission still needs to submit a formal roadmap to the 27 countries and assured in early April that it would do so “before the summer”.

But some member states, including Italy, consider the 2040 target too ambitious, with Hungary even opposing it. In contrast, Finland, Portugal, Spain, and Denmark support this 90% reduction.

“We are waiting for the Commission’s proposal” to make France’s position known, said the entourage of the Minister for Ecological Transition when interviewed by AFP on Monday.

Paris’s silence worries environmentalists at a time when the United States is withdrawing from the Paris Agreement. (April 29, 2025)