Nine EU countries off track on climate goals, EU says

Nine European Union countries, including Germany and Italy, are off track on emissions-cutting goals, the European Commission said Monday as UN climate talks opened.

The commission said it would ask the nine countries to submit corrective action plans to accelerate emissions-reduction measures and investments.

In a report issued on the sidelines of the COP31 climate summit in Turkey, the commission assessed EU members’ progress on national plans to cut greenhouse gases.

It said Italy, Croatia and Cyprus had already exceeded their emissions targets for 2021 to 2025. Austria, Germany, Ireland, Lithuania, Malta and Sweden were at risk of missing their 2030 targets.

European Climate Commissioner Wopke Hoekstra will write to all nine countries asking them to submit plans within three months to get back on track, the commission said.

The commission’s provisional figures showed the EU’s net greenhouse gas emissions fell by 1.6 percent last year from 2024. The 27-nation bloc’s emissions are now 39 percent below 1990 levels.

The EU has set a target of cutting emissions by 90 percent by 2040 and reaching net-zero emissions by 2050. Environmental groups accuse the EU of weakening climate rules for companies over the past two years.