Ambitious emissions cuts now look like bare minimum

Now after popping the champagne, consider that we need to cut annual EU greenhouse gas emissions by a full quarter through the coming decade to achieve the 40% target for 2030, set in 2014 and already starting to look dated when the Paris Agreement was stuck just over a year later.

Then imagine further that the EU has managed to adopt the 55% target – still with the same 1990 baseline – called for by the European Parliament again this week, and at the upper end of Commission president Ursula von der Leyen's pre-election ambition curve. We now need to cut emissions by almost 44% in just 10 years.