Statement: Council adopts 2040 climate target

Brussels, BELGIUM (5 November 2025): Today in Brussels, EU Environment Ministers adopted the Council’s position on the 90% greenhouse gas emissions reduction target by 2040. SolarPower Europe has issued the following statement in reaction.  

Walburga Hemetsberger, CEO of SolarPower Europe (she/her):   

“With the endorsement of the 2040 climate target, Europe is committing to renewables, and strengthening its energy security.

The target gives companies the much needed confidence to continue investing in solar, storage, and electrification, and accelerating the energy transition.

Although this text provides considerable flexibilities to Member States, it paves the way for continued climate investments and constructive international climate negotiations ahead of the COP30 climate summit.

Now the European Parliament needs to send the same clear signal: Europe’s clean energy future runs on renewables, storage and electrification. Not fossil fuels.

By giving industry this certainty now, we can turn this momentum into lasting growth.”

Notes 

• The Council position features the following flexibilities for Member States in reaching the 2040 target: International credits (i.e. carbon credits bought from third countries) can account for up to 5% of the 90% greenhouse gas emissions reduction target; Domestic surplus carbon removals can compensate for emissions in other, hard-to-abate sectors; The European Commission is asked to assess the EU’s natural carbon removal potential by 2040. If this potential is considered insufficient, the European Commission will have a legal mandate to amend the overall target; and the text calls for a one-year delay in the implementation of ETS2 (buildings, road transport, heating and additional sectors). As part of the 2023 revisions of the Emissions Trading Systems (ETS) Directive, a new emissions trading system named ETS2 was created. This new system will cover and address the CO₂ emissions from fuel combustion in buildings, road transport and additional sectors (mainly small industry not covered by the existing EU ETS). Read more.

• Next, the European Parliament will discuss the 2040 climate target. On 5 November 2025, the European Parliament’s Committee on Industry, Research and Energy (ITRE) voted and adopted its opinion report on the target. This opinion will inform the European Parliament’s Committee on Environment, Public Health and Food Safety (ENVI), the Committee leading on the 2040 Climate Target regulation in Parliament, which aims to adopt its position on 11 November.

• In July 2025, the European Commission proposed an amendment to the EU Climate Law, setting a 2040 EU climate target of 90% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions, compared to 1990 levels.

• The European Climate Law, which entered into force in July 2021, legally commits the EU to achieve climate neutrality by 2050, with an interim target of at least a 55% reduction in net greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 compared to 1990 levels.

© European Union (download here)