Brussels launches legal effort to make EU climate neutral by 2050

But details on how to get there yet to be decided.

The European Commission published its proposal for a Climate Law Wednesday — meant to make the EU’s commitment to slash greenhouse gases to net zero by 2050 legally binding.

“We are acting today to make the EU the world’s first climate neutral continent by 2050,” Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said in a statement, adding the law would set the bloc “irreversibly on the path to a more sustainable future” and provide the long-term predictability needed to overhaul the way Europe produces, consumes and uses resources.

The draft bill, which will need to be approved in negotiations with the European Parliament and EU member countries, dodges the most politically charged issue of immediately boosting the bloc’s 2030 emissions reduction goal. It sets a September deadline to review the impact of raising the goal to as high as 55 percent from the current 40 percent, and to present a plan for a higher target.

That’s riling activists and an alliance of green-minded countries and parliamentarians, worried September is too late for the bloc to increase its 2030 goal in time for November’s COP26 climate summit in Glasgow.

The Climate Law proposal aims to give Brussels new powers to push through higher emissions targets every five years after 2030, and review the bloc’s progress toward climate neutrality, including by assessing future legislation.

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Brussels today also launches a consultation on its proposed Climate Pact, to involve citizens and other players in the bloc’s climate efforts.