EU no longer willing to act alone on climate, 2040 emissions target signals

A man shelters from the sun in Toulouse during a heatwave in France. Emmanuel Macron has suggested the 2040 target could be delayed. Photograph: Ed Jones/AFP/Getty Images

For most of the past 30 years, the EU has led the world on climate action. The bloc had the deepest reductions in greenhouse gas emissions under the Kyoto protocol; the first climate laws came from EU member states; the first emissions trading scheme, in 2005; and the Paris agreement in 2015.

At times when other major countries – the US, Japan, Canada, China and India at various points – have stepped back, the EU has often stepped forward. There would be no Paris accord had the bloc not won a key battle at the Durban climate summit in 2011 that paved the way.