Vanya Walker-Leigh and news reports

A day after a UN scientific panel published dire warnings about the urgent need for far greater global action to slow climate change, EU environment ministers meeting in the Environment Council on Tuesday failed to agree on upping current Union 2030 targets for greenhouse gas emission reductions (a reduction of at least 40% below 1990 levels - EU having already achieved 23%).

In a formal statement issued ahead of the Council, fifteen Member States - Malta not among them - had urged a strong  EU commitment  to greater ambition as part of its negotiating position at the next UN "COP 24" climate change negotiations in Katowice, Poland (2-14 December).

Both the Commission president, Jean-Claude Juncker and its Energy and Climate Commissioner, Miguel Arias Cañete have declared support for a higher 2030 target. The fifteen were: Belgium, Cyprus, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom.

At the end of a tense and difficult 13-hour session, the Council also adopted with a qualified majority vote a target for reducing carbon dioxide emissions from cars and vans by 35% by 2030  against higher levels supported by a number of Member States, the Commission and the European Parliament, but strongly opposed by Germany and some others.

In an attempt to tune-up the European Commission's initial 30% emission cuts proposal, Austria's EU Presidency tabled a 35% offering, which ultimately ended up being split into separate 35% and 30% targets for cars and vans, respectively.

Twenty member states voted in favour of the final text, four against and four abstained. It  could not be ascertained if Malta had simply abstained or actually voted against.

The conclusions state "that the EU STRESSES that the EU is ready... to communicate or update its Nationally Determined Contribution for post-2020 action by 2020, taking into account the collective further efforts needed and actions undertaken by all Parties to meet the objectives of the Paris Agreement".

The conclusions also stated that EU is "DEEPLY CONCERNED by the new evidence on the negative impacts of climate change that are unequivocally confirmed by the latest scientific findings reported by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change in its Special Report on the impacts of global warming of 1.5 °C above pre-industrial levels......... it is a matter of extreme urgency to strengthen the global response to the threat of climate change, sustainable development, and efforts to eradicate poverty".

But the final deal created a 'coalition of the disappointed', as a group of member states pushing for higher targets expressed their disgust with the final agreement.

Denmark, Ireland, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Slovenia and Sweden told the chairing Austrian Presidency in no uncertain terms that the so-called general approach had actually become weaker and less ambitious as the day's talks had progressed.

Those countries said they would circulate a declaration stating their "disappointment" with the agreement.

The Commission's Strategy for long-term GHG emission reductions to 2050 to be presented before the UN conference, must take into account the IPCC report the Conclusions added, with action proposals to include all economic sectors as well as a just transition for workers and companies whose activities need to be reduced or eliminated.

Reacting to a leaked draft of the Strategy, Wendel Trio, Director of ClimateAction Network Europe (150 NGOs in 35 countries, including Nature Trust Malta) stated that "the strategy in its current shape is far off track to achieve 1.5°C...  in stark contrast with the urgency of action enshrined in the new IPCC report.  Europe needs to reduce emissions much faster than the rest of the world, accepting its fair share of the effort to limit climate change. Staying below 1.5°C means Europe needs to reach net zero emissions by 2040."

At a CAN-Europe press conference on Monday, Sandrine Dixson-Declève, Member of The Club of Rome  said that "the IPCC report repeats what many other reports have indicated: we have the technological solutions and we have the money to get this done. What we now need is the political will and the regulatory conditions... the Club of Rome is drafting a Climate Emergency Plan (to)  call upon all government and business leaders to show they are stepping up their ambition.  If we take on this challenge together, we will create the basis for a societal renaissance of unprecedented  proportions."

While Business Europe declared its opposition to higher EU targets, many leading European companies belong to global coalitions committed to align with the Paris Agreement goals while various ambitious business commitments emerged at last month's San Francisco Global Climate Action Summit and the subsequent One Planet Summit hosted by France's President Macron in New York.

The Prince of Wales' Corporate Leaders Group in a formal letter to the Council urged that EU's leadership was essential in achieving net zero emissions by 2050 at the latest and that EU would inevitably need to upwardly review its interim targets for 2030 to make sure they capture the progress to date and are consistent with these goals.

Price Waterhouse Coopers in a recent report found that that the gap between the current decarbonization rate and the rate needed to limit global warming to 2°C above preindustrial levels is widening. While many G20 countries have cut the carbon intensity of their economies  the average annual  2.6 per cent decarbonization rate  "remains less than half of what is required."

However, Monday's IPCC report warned that dire impacts in particular on agriculture, coastal cities, small island states, water resources, biodiversity, forests, health, urban areas, fisheries, coral reefs, glaciers and polar ice sheets could result from reaching the 2°C level, detailing the enormous differences in their severity as compared to keeping the increase to 1.5°C.

Commenting on the report British economist Nicholas Stern  emphasised that "the next 10 years will be absolutely crucial in determining what kind of world will exist in the decades beyond. If we act decisively, and innovate and invest wisely, we could both avoid the worst impacts of climate change and successfully achieve the UN 2030 Sustainable Development Goals.. If we do not, we face a world in which it will become increasingly difficult for us and future generations to thrive."

The Summary for Policy Makers and the 735-page Report issued in Incheon, South Korea  emerged after a bruising week of negotiations between governments as well as between governments and the dozens of scientists authoring the report - with rumours of hefty efforts by the Unites States and Saudi Arabia to water down  key messages.

These included the call for global CO2 emissions to decline by about 45% between 2010 and 2030 and hit net zero in 2050 - compared to what would be needed for 2.0°C-a  20% or so reduction   by 2030 and net zero by 2075. However, if current trends continue ie there is no increase in the level of collective ambition of Nationally Determined Contributions tabled by nearly 180 countries,   +1.5°C could already be reached between 2030 and 2052.

Renewable energies should supply 70 to 85% of power by 2050, while energy-intensive industries will have to slash their CO2 by 75 to 90% by 2050. Mitigating energy emissions for the 1.5°C goal will require around US$900 billion of investment per year between 2015 and 2050. Additional trillions will also be needed to retool other high emitting sectors such as transport, building and agriculture.