The European Commission wants to keep a 90 percent emissions-cutting target but to change how countries calculate their progress. Free article usually reserved for subscribers Wopke Hoekstra trying to navigate an increasingly narrow political path to deliver on Commission President Ursula von der Leyen’s promise to set a course for a 90 percent emissions reduction. | Ramon van Flymen/AFP via Getty Images March 31, 2025 4:38 am CET EU Climate Commissioner Wopke Hoekstra is considering options to soften the bloc’s 2040 climate goal as he tries to contain a backlash against Europe’s climate ambitions. The European Commission, the EU’s executive, is expected to propose legislation in the coming weeks to adopt a previously announced target to cut 90 percent of greenhouse gas pollution by 2040. But to allay political concerns about the effort’s cost to heavy industry and agriculture, Hoekstra is weighing “flexibilities” for reaching that goal, according to a Commission official and two people briefed on the discussions, granted anonymity to reveal details of confidential deliberations. The options being discussed range from allowing countries to defer steeper cuts to letting them count carbon reductions they pay for in other countries. Another idea would be to lean more on carbon that forests or technology can remove from the air. For EU officials, the approach is a way to make an increasingly unpopular goal more politically palatable — and help ensure the European Parliament and EU capitals will approve the legislation. But civil society groups warn the measures could also weaken the EU’s overall efforts to stamp out planet-warming emissions. The options being discussed range from allowing countries to defer steeper cuts to letting them count carbon reductions they pay for in other countries. | Nikolay Doychinov/AFP via Getty Images These are “very dangerous proposals,” said Sam Van den plas, […]