Beautiful Virgin Islands

Tuesday, Jun 03, 2025

EU accused of climate accounting tricks

EU accused of climate accounting tricks

The bloc says it’s doing more to cut emissions, but environmentalists aren’t convinced.
There's some hocus-pocus going on with the emissions reduction numbers the European Union is proudly touting at the COP27 climate summit, climate campaigners allege.

The EU says it's one of the few parties to the Paris Agreement to actually follow the rules and beef up its Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC) — U.N.-speak for the promises made under the 2015 pact. The bloc's original proposal was to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 55 percent by the end of the decade, but three new rule changes boost that to 57 percent.

“The EU stands ready to update our NDC, reflecting this higher ambition ... So, don’t let anyone tell you, here or outside, that the EU is backtracking,” Frans Timmermans, the commissioner in charge of the bloc's Green Deal project, said in Sharm El-Sheikh on Tuesday.

But climate NGOs are lot more skeptical.

They charge that amendments made to the bloc's mammoth Fit for 55 project tweak numbers, but the actual CO2 pollution emitted by the bloc won't change. The crucial change is the contribution of negative emissions made under the revision of the Land Use, Land Use Change and Forestry Regulation (LULUCF), which calculates CO2 absorbed by land and forests — known as carbon sinks.

“Before the Climate Law, EU reduction targets were 'gross,' meaning they didn’t include removals from the land sink,” said Mark Preston Aragonès, policy adviser with Bellona, an industrial decarbonization NGO. “But now that there’s a net target, they can play around and pretend they’re doing more to cut emissions.”

He said a crucial flaw in how the EU estimates its new headline climate target of a 57 percent cut is that storing CO2 through natural sinks, like soil and forests, is a less permanent form of climate action than cutting greenhouse gas emissions altogether. That's because these ecosystems can be hit by natural disturbances, like fires, pests and drought, which reduces their absorption capacity.

Ulriikka Aarnio, senior climate and land use policy coordinator at the Climate Action Network-Europe, an NGO, said the revised LULUCF Regulation means, "the sink is now bigger than it was foreseen in the EU Climate Law, but it's on paper."

The European Commission declined to specifically comment on the NGOs' allegation that the updated 57 percent reduction target is an accounting trick.

The bloc's objective for CO2 removals was changed last week to reach 310 million tons by 2030, up from the earlier goal of 265 million tons.

But even if EU countries hit their national targets, the "atmospheric impact" of the reductions "won't truly be minus 310 million tons in 2030," Aarnio added, because the LULUCF Regulation allows EU countries to exclude counting some CO2 emissions from the land use and forestry sectors in specific cases, such as forest fires.

"With the flexibilities, you can discount emissions that you don’t put in your accounting book like natural disturbances, but these emissions are still going into the atmosphere," she said.

The EU's updated climate targets are also the result of two additional legislative changes: an update to the so-called Effort Sharing Regulation, which sets national targets for emissions not covered by the EU's Emissions Trading System; and a proposal to phase out CO2-emitting combustion engines by 2035.

"What’s happened is that through the agreement of the legislations I’ve mentioned, on emission-free cars by 2035, on the effort-sharing between member states on the reduction of emissions, and on empowering the natural environment to be better carbon sinks … these three measures combined ... end up with a reduction of 57 percent," Timmermans said. "So, it’s not a new target, it’s not formulating a new ambition, it’s just translating what we have decided into actual reduction numbers."

Even if the 57 percent reduction is real, that's still not enough to hit the Paris Agreement's goal of limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees, complained Chiara Martinelli, a director of CAN Europe, arguing the bloc should cut its emissions by 65 percent by the end of the decade.

"This small increase announced today at COP27 doesn’t do justice to the calls from the most vulnerable countries at the frontlines," she said.
Newsletter

Related Articles

Beautiful Virgin Islands
0:00
0:00
Close
China Accuses US of Violating Trade Truce
Panama Port Owner Balances US-China Pressures
France Implements Nationwide Outdoor Smoking Ban to Protect Children
German Chancellor Merz Keeps Putin Guessing on Missile Strategy
Mandelson Criticizes UK's 'Fetish' for Abandoning EU Regulations
British Fishing Boat Owner Fined €30,000 by French Authorities
Dutch government falls as far-right leader Wilders quits coalition
Harvard Urges US to Unfreeze Funds for Public Health Research
Businessman Mauled by Lion at Luxury Namibian Lodge
Researchers Consider New Destinations Beyond the U.S.
53-Year-Old Doctor Claims Biological Age of 23
Trump Struggles to Secure Trade Deals With China and Europe
Russia to Return 6,000 Corpses Under Ukraine Prisoner Swap Deal
Microsoft Lays Off Hundreds More Amid Restructuring
Harvey Weinstein’s Publicist Embraces Notoriety
Macron and Meloni Seek Unity Despite Tensions
Trump Administration Accused of Obstructing Deportation Cases
Newark Mayor Sues Over Arrest at Immigration Facility
Center-Left Candidate Projected to Win South Korean Presidency
Trump’s Tariffs Predicted to Stall Global Economic Growth
South Korea’s President-Elect Expected to Take Softer Line on Trump and North Korea
Trump’s China Strategy Remains a Geopolitical Puzzle
Ukraine Executes Long-Range Drone Strikes on Russian Airbases
Conservative Karol Nawrocki wins Poland’s presidential election
Study Identifies Potential Radicalization Risk Among Over One Million Muslims in Germany
Good news: Annalena Baerbock Elected President of the UN General Assembly
Apple Appeals EU Law Over User Data Sharing Requirements
South Africa: "First Black Bank" Collapses after Being Looted by Owners
Poland will now withdraw from the EU migration pact after pro-Trump nationalist wins Election
"That's Disgusting, Don’t Say It Again": The Trump Joke That Made the President Boil
Trump Cancels NASA Nominee Over Democratic Donations
Paris Saint-Germain's Greatest Triumph Is Football’s Lowest Point
OnlyFans for Sale: From Lockdown Lifeline to Eight-Billion-Dollar Empire
Mayor’s Security Officer Implicated | Shocking New Details Emerge in NYC Kidnapping Case
Hegseth Warns of Potential Chinese Military Action Against Taiwan
OPEC+ Agrees to Increase Oil Output for Third Consecutive Month
Jamie Dimon Warns U.S. Bond Market Faces Pressure from Rising Debt
Turkey Detains Istanbul Officials Amid Anti-Corruption Crackdown
Taylor Swift Gains Ownership of Her First Six Albums
Bangkok Ranked World's Top City for Remote Work in 2025
Satirical Sketch Sparks Political Spouse Feud in South Korea
Indonesia Quarry Collapse Leaves Multiple Dead and Missing
South Korean Election Video Pulled Amid Misogyny Outcry
Asian Economies Shift Away from US Dollar Amid Trade Tensions
Netflix Investigates Allegations of On-Set Mistreatment in K-Drama Production
US Defence Chief Reaffirms Strong Ties with Singapore Amid Regional Tensions
Vietnam Faces Strategic Dilemma Over China's Mekong River Projects
Malaysia's First AI Preacher Sparks Debate on Islamic Principles
White House Press Secretary Criticizes Harvard Funding, Advocates for Vocational Training
France to Implement Nationwide Smoking Ban in Outdoor Spaces Frequented by Children
×