An agreement is there. It comes at dawn, as it often does in climate negotiations, when EU delegates are now living on coffee and compromise: Parliament and Council have found the political understanding that sets the
Behind that number, however, is a complex legislative machine that has crafted a series of flexibilities designed to hold together climate ambition, industrial competitiveness, and the trade-off necessary to get the green light.
Carbon credits, ETS and exemptions
The compromise reached allows states, from 2036, to use up to five percentage points of reductions from “high-quality” international credits, i.e., in line with the Paris Agreement and with new guarantees inserted under pressure from Parliament. No funding for projects that go against the EU’s strategic interests, and maximum attention to human rights and environmental integrity.
Then there is another important piece: the use of permanent carbon removals to offset emissions that are harder to abate, and additional flexibility between sectors.
An ongoing review: the target can change
The agreement is not carved in marble. There is a two-year review process that, in addition to monitoring removals and energy price trends, explicitly opens up the possibility of modifying the 2040 target or introducing additional measures if necessary. In short, the goal is clear, but the path remains adaptive.
Italy supported the text’s final layout, contributing to the mediation and underwriting the path to 2040. A choice that carries with it heavy expectations, as Davide Panzeri of the think tank ECCO recalls: this must be “an opportunity for responsibility” to translate commitments into real policies, not just declarations.
Also from the Italian think tank come the words of Francesca Bellisai, who sees the added conditions on carbon credits as a decisive step forward in protecting the environment and human rights at a time when voluntary and regulated markets are booming.
What’s left before the finish line
It is now up to the two co-legislators to formally approve the text. It will come into force 20 days after publication in the Official Gazette. The hard part, however, will come soon after: turning numbers and tools into concrete projects, infrastructure, investments and regulations that will really make the deep decarbonisation of the continent possible.
The night’s agreement doesn’t solve everything, but it says Europe has no intention of slowing down. 2040 is no longer a distant horizon, it is a countdown.
