Climate change: what the EU is doing

A climate-neutral EU by 2050

EU countries are legally committed to fighting climate change by shifting to a climate-neutral economy with net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.

In December 2019, EU leaders meeting within the European Council agreed on this goal and later the European Commission launched the European Green Deal.

The objective stems from the commitment to the Paris Agreement which all EU member states have signed and ratified.

• Paris Agreement on climate change

What are climate neutrality and net-zero emissions?

Climate neutrality means that greenhouse gas emissions generated by human activity, such as of those of carbon dioxide (CO₂) due to the burning of fossil fuels, are heavily reduced in the atmosphere so as to ensure that there is no impact on the climate system.

Those emissions which are hard to eliminate are compensated by carbon removals, in other words, CO₂ extracted from the atmosphere either naturally by vegetation or by mechanical means.

In a climate-neutral economy, there is a net-zero emissions balance.

How EU countries will achieve climate neutrality

In order to achieve climate neutrality in the EU by 2050, EU countries must drastically reduce their greenhouse gas emissions and find ways of compensating the remaining and unavoidable emissions.

In past years and in particular under the European Green Deal, the EU has set goals for reducing emissions across economic sectors and adopted laws to achieve such reductions.

The EU’s climate goals

As the climate crisis worsens and extreme weather events are increasing in frequency and severity, EU countries have set progressively become more ambitious targets to fight climate change.

The first EU-wide climate goal was agreed in 2008: it set the target of reducing emissions by 20% by 2020 compared to 1990. The EU overachieved this goal and achieved a 32% cut in 2020. This was also linked to the COVID-19 pandemic, yet data shows that the EU had already overachieved its target in 2019 with a reduction of 25%.

In 2014, the European Union agreed on a 40% emissions reduction target for 2030. In 2023, the EU increased its ambition for the 2030 target: with the European climate law, EU countries are now legally bound to reduce emissions by at least 55% by 2030.

In March 2026, following agreement with the European Parliament, the Council adopted the amended European climate law, introducing a binding intermediate target for 2040: a 90% reduction in net greenhouse gas emissions compared to 1990 levels.

This new target is a crucial step towards the EU's long-term goal of achieving climate neutrality by 2050. As a regulation, the European climate law is directly applicable in all EU member states.

• 2040 climate target: Council gives final green light (press release, 5 March 2026)
• 2040 climate target: Council and Parliament agree on a 90% emissions reduction (press release, 10 December 2025)
• 2040 climate target: Council agrees its position on a 90% emissions reduction (press release, 5 November 2025)

EU climate policy and laws

Much of the EU’s recent climate policy is a result of the European Green Deal.

The European climate law is the main piece of legislation within the Green Deal, in as much as it makes the goal of achieving climate neutrality by 2050 a legal obligation for all EU member countries.

A major set of climate legislation is the Fit for 55 package, comprising several pieces of legislation and setting rules and measures to reach the goal of cutting emissions by at least 55% by 2030.

As reaching a net-zero emissions balance requires a major transformation of the current economic model, climate policy extends to all economic sectors. Here are some examples of measures taken under EU law.

Examples of climate measures

Boosting renewable energy

Improving energy efficiency

Increasing carbon removals

Reforming and expanding emissions trading

Making transport more environmentally friendly

Supporting people in shifting to a greener economy

Progress towards climate neutrality

Since the first climate targets were agreed by EU countries, the EU has gone a long way in reducing its climate impact.

In 2024, the EU had cut net greenhouse gas emissions by over 37% compared to 1990 levels (over 39% if international aviation and shipping are excluded).

However, emissions are not being cut at the same pace across all sectors. While emissions in transport are rising, they are substantially lower in other sectors compared to 1990, with energy industries leading the way with a decrease of 57%.

EU greenhouse gas emissions are falling

The chart below shows the EU's greenhouse gas emissions by sector in billions of tonnes of CO₂ equivalent, excluding emissions from international aviation and navigation and removals (carbon sink) from the land use, land use change and forestry sector (LULUCF).

See also