The European Climate Law passed in 2021 made it legally binding for the EU to reach net-zero emissions by 2050, which at the same time set the interim 2030 target of at least 55% reduction in emissions. The Climate Law (Article 4) likewise mandated the European Commission to propose a 2040 target in 2024.
Having a 2040 target is important for the European Commission as a clear signal for all stakeholders. It is telling citizens and the world the EU's resolve in reaching the 2050 target, while at the same time it is setting predictability for political decisions for member states and investment decisions for the industry.
EU Commission (2023, August 21). Factual Summary Report on The Public Consultation On The Eu Climate Target For 2040. https://ec.europa.eu/info/law/better-regulation/have-your-say/initiatives/13793-EU-climate-target-for-2040/public-consultation_en Without the 2040 target, the EU would risk undermining the pace of its progress towards net zero and its international call for partnership in climate action. Furthermore, the target is in line with the Paris Agreement which calls for regular and periodical updates of national contributions.
To that end, the European Commission launched a public consultation on 31 March, which lasted 12 weeks, and ended on 23 June. The consultation gathered a total of 903 feedback responses.
What are the outcomes of the consultation on the EU's 2040 climate targets? The summary report of the consultation that was subsequently published reflected only 879 responses out of 903 received, discarding duplicates and unqualified answers. Out of these, 53.2% of the respondents are EU citizens while the rest are organisations. Out of the latter, large business associations and companies form the largest group, followed by smaller business associations and companies, and then by civil society organisations. The rest are public authorities, research institutions and others.
In the heatmap of the responses, you can find that the most responses came out of Germany (235), followed by Belgium (129), then Italy (54) and Spain (54).
According to the report, Slovakia actually submitted 67 responses instead of 44. But because 23 responses submitted by "citizens" gave the same narrative, they were regarded as a campaign. Those 23 responses called for policymakers to use CO2-free transportation and indicated that the EU should make its ambition dependent on other countries’ climate ambition.
Looking at the responses by organisations alone, the majority of them support an acceleration of the transition to climate neutrality, although 18.3% would like it to continue at the current pace.
Compared to responses by individuals, the organisations are not as certain about putting a number on the 2040 target. While 29.7% think it should be more than 90% reduction, 23.6% think it should be between 75%-80%. 18.1% did not provide a number.
EU Commission (2023, August 21). Factual Summary Report on The Public Consultation On The Eu Climate Target For 2040. https://ec.europa.eu/info/law/better-regulation/have-your-say/initiatives/13793-EU-climate-target-for-2040/public-consultation_en Who is seeking to influence the proposal on the EU's 2040 climate targets? With the COP28 that will be convened in the UAE round the corner, the European Commission will most likely update international partners of its plan to set the 2040 targets. It will definitely be in COP29 that this will be formally communicated to the rest of the world.
For European stakeholders, the 2040 targets will set the momentum between the 2030 targets enshrined in the Climate Law and the ultimate net zero goal. With the rapid acceleration towards cleaner and greener energy sources, it is already clear that some will be slower than others. For some industries, the technology is simply not present. For others, the investments needed to make the transition will take longer to collect than what regulators assume. But whatever the case is, going through the feedback responses gives a picture of this file going to be one of the most debated one in the coming year.
It was already clear that the following issues posed in the consultation will emerge as the main policy lines of the upcoming proposal:
Expansion of CBAM Unsustainable agricultural practices The role of carbon removals Renewable energy or energy efficiency These questions concern many sectors, from agriculture to forestry, to transport and trade, and also any energy-intensive industry such as chemical and fertilisers.
EU Commission (2023, August 21). Factual Summary Report on The Public Consultation On The Eu Climate Target For 2040. https://ec.europa.eu/info/law/better-regulation/have-your-say/initiatives/13793-EU-climate-target-for-2040/public-consultation_en How can SAVOIRR help you? SAVOIRR is the only EU-focused RegTech platform on the market that lets you function both inside and outside of your "focus area ". Our AI-driven algorithm learns from user searches and the available data sources the scope and depth of each policy area. When you choose one or two policy areas to be your focus area, SAVOIRR delivers all the pertinent news, events, consultations and procedures to your workspace. Furthermore, you can add specific key phrases (always within parentheses) to add more additional dimensions to your focus area. These can be the titles of policy packages, names of a policymaker, or any specific issues you are monitoring. These keywords will help to train our algorithm in retrieving data that pertains to your fields of interest.
In this case, once you have chosen energy or environment as your policy area, you will not miss the consultation launched on 30 March 2023.
SAVOIRR gives you a complete overview of the consultation timeline and backlinks to the consultation feedback pages so that you can contribute to the consultation and check the feedback submitted by the other stakeholders.
As you can see in the screenshot below, for every document SAVOIRR always links you back to the related consultation or procedure. With our tag functionality, you can start collecting related documents, consultations, procedures, policymakers and organisations into a single dossier. Just like how you would do offline, but with all the information available at your fingertip.
Once the procedure starts, you are even able to track competitors who are trying to influence the file, as demonstrated in our case studies on the "Digital Euro " and the "Gas and Hydrogen Package".
To know more about how SAVOIRR can turbocharge your public affairs influence, contact us today. 
