Panorama 10.10.2025
Euranet Plus Panorama is a weekly news review that showcases our network’s wide-ranging coverage of EU-related stories.
Radio România, 13.10.2025, 17:20
Green shoots or grey clouds: what next for the climate?
Instead of agreeing on some concrete climate proposals, last month’s meeting of European environment ministers came to a close with a number of key decisions kicked on down the road.
We take a look at the current climate state of play.
Two sets of targets
The 18 September meeting of the environment council focused on the proposed amendment to Europe’s climate law to set a binding greenhouse gas emission reduction target of 90 per cent on 1990 levels by 2040, as a step on the way to climate neutrality by 2050.
In addition, the UN secretary general is pushing to formalise fresh 2035 emissions reduction targets under the Paris Agreement at the COP30 climate conference in Brazil next month. Yet despite a September deadline for submitting their new collective target, all the ministers in attendance managed to do at this meeting was to approve a ‘statement of intent’.
The statement outlined the EU’s intention to present, in November, a nationally determined contribution (NDC) for 2035 that falls somewhere between 66.25 and 72.5 per cent fewer emissions. This pledge, claims the environment council, is in line with the 2040 emissions reduction target currently under negotiation, but it comes in lower than many had hoped.
And Julie Zalcman, a specialist in EU trade and climate policy at Friends of the Earth Europe, tells euradio that most of these NDCs are falling short anyway.
Julie Zalcman, Campaigner at Friends of the Earth Europe (in French):
“Most of the targets set by the countries taking part in the COP fall short of what the scientists are calling for in order to meet a reduction target of 1.5 degrees. So today, the plans that are being presented, the national plans, are not up to the task of meeting these climate commitments.”
She calls on the bloc to, at the very least, stick to the 90-per-cent-by-2040 goal – another decision that was postponed until the EU leaders’ summit later this month.
Andres Sutt, Estonia’s energy and climate minister, was at the 18 September meeting. He tells Kuku Raadio that 90 per cent by 2040 is doable, on the condition that there is flexibility within and between sectors. This means the ability to push ahead of the target where there is the capacity to do so, so that more time can be accorded where change will take longer.
He also hits back at Europe’s critics around the world, pointing out that the EU has really been doing its bit…
Andres Sutt, Estonia’s Minister for Energy and Climate (in Estonian):
“I think there are many outside the EU who would like to see the EU fail. We do not have to give them this opportunity. The EU has significantly reduced its emissions by global standards. We currently account for about six per cent of global CO2 emissions. To accuse Europe of doing nothing is simply unfair.”
Sutt makes reference to a report published back in April by the Copernicus Climate Service and the World Meteorological Organization, which states that since the 1980s, Europe has been warming twice as fast as the global average. In this context, he emphasises the importance of the EU’s role as a global leader, and stresses that we cannot rest on our laurels.
Andres Sutt, Estonia’s Minister for Energy and Climate (in Estonian):
„We have been hit the hardest; Europe has been the fastest warming continent. We have already done a lot ourselves, and now it is time for other regions to get moving. But for that, it is important that we ourselves show a clear sense of purpose and lead by example when moving in the direction of our targets.”
Washington reversing on electric cars
So much for other regions getting moving. On the other side of the Atlantic, President Trump has been resolutely unpicking US environmental progress.
On the day Washington cut incentives for the purchase of electric vehicles and stopped fining combustion cars that exceed emissions limits, Renascença turned to Francisco Ferreira, the president of ZERO – the most important environmental association in Portugal – for his take on developments.
Ferreira believes the US Congress’s decision is a serious setback that will have a knock-on effect in Europe. He underlines that prominent voices on this side of the Pond are even calling to reopen a closed debate and postpone the bloc’s 2035 ban on combustion engines in new cars.
Francisco Ferreira, President of ZERO (in Portuguese):
“What is happening in the United States is a reflection of the current President’s policy of withdrawing from the Paris Agreement. It has to do with promoting traditional fossil fuel industries, and it is really serious that, both in the United States and in the European Union, these issues are taking such a big step backwards. Because we are seeing the consequences of global warming, and cars ultimately hold a direct and very significant responsibility for these emissions.”
Julie Zalcman from Friends of the Earth points the finger at some of these dissenting voices – which include German chancellor Friedrich Merz – in her interview with euradio.
Julie Zalcman, Campaigner at Friends of the Earth Europe (in French):
“We can see that certain countries that previously gave themselves the image of leaders within the European Union for climate action are now actually causing the Union to backslide on its climate ambitions.”
Often the case made for this so-called ‘backslide’ is an economic one: that we need to reduce environmental regulations to improve the competitiveness of our industries. But Belgian Green Marie Lecocq argues that this is far too simplistic a calculation and offers RTBF some hard data based on the Belgian economy.
Marie Lecocq, Co-Chair of Ecolo in Belgium (in French):
“If we don’t invest in the [climate] transition, it will cost us 30 billion. That’s five per cent of GDP every year. The Federal Planning Bureau says so. So we need to invest now. I note that we’ve managed to find 34 billion for defence in just one budgetary year. Yet in my view, there is no greater urgency than to invest in our survival today; in other words, to invest in protecting, supporting and helping in the face of these climate disruptions.”
Helder Barata Pedro, who is secretary general of ACAP, Portugal’s automobile association, asserts that Europe’s automotive industry does, though, remain focused on a shift towards electric vehicles.
Helder Barata Pedro, Secretary General of ACAP (in Portuguese):
“The automotive industry and car manufacturers have invested heavily in electrification, as is well known. This is a path that the European Union, particularly in terms of battery regulations and other types of regulation, has been reinforcing in this sector. It is, therefore, a process that is being rolled out and will continue to be rolled out in the automotive industry.”
Environment in a state
At the end of September, around the same time as Trump was busy slashing his environmental commitments, the European Environment Agency (EEA) released its five-yearly ‘state of the environment’ report. This comprehensive study highlights that while significant progress has been made in reducing greenhouse gas emissions and air pollution, the outlook for most environmental trends is concerning.
André Weidenhaupt is chair of the EEA’s management board, as well as being a high-ranking official in Luxembourg’s ministry of the environment, climate and sustainable development. In an interview with 100,7, he echoes Andres Sutt’s message that while Europe has shown good progress in terms of greenhouse gas emissions, this is not the case worldwide. And, he goes on, climate change is not the only concern.
André Weidenhaupt, Chair of the Management Board at the EEA (in Luxembourgish):
“And then there’s the growing pollution… including persistent chemicals, which somehow cannot be eliminated. As a result, we are seeing a massive drop in biodiversity.”
According to the EEA report, climate change and environmental degradation pose major risks to Europe’s economic prosperity, security and quality of life. Weidenhaupt gives a concrete example from Luxembourg.
André Weidenhaupt, Chair of the Management Board at the EEA (in Luxembourgish):
“Where you really notice that our nature is suffering because of climate change is when you look at the forests, for example. Basically, dead wood has doubled in recent years. Which is of course alarming, since forests are basically a sink in terms of CO2 emissions. In other words, they absorb CO2. And if our forests are not doing well, they cannot absorb this, which is clearly disastrous.”
Bulgarian National Radio throws a spotlight on a striking case of how climate change and environmental degradation impacted on economic prosperity, security and quality of life just last week. Unprecedented flooding in a Black Sea coastal resort led to four deaths, 200 people being evacuated, and enormous material damage.
Ekaterina Batchvarova is a meteorologist specialising in urban climate at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences. She tells BNR that there is a common factor at play in the increasing number of natural disasters Europe is experiencing.
Ekaterina Batchvarova, Meteorologist (in Bulgarian):
“We know why all these things are happening. The Earth’s atmosphere and oceans are warming up. This has already been documented in many places. This means there is much more energy in the atmosphere. As a result, atmospheric processes are becoming much more intense, and extreme phenomena such as drought and rainfall are also becoming more intense.”
The resort in question, adds Batchvarova, was inexplicably built in a ravine, on an existing watercourse. And with forested areas being cleared in the mountains, the water runoff to the ravines becomes even more intense.
Greater responsibility must be shown in terms of urban planning and construction, agrees Ventsi Bozhkov, who teaches hydraulic engineering at the University of Architecture, Civil Engineering and Geodesy (UACEG) in Sofia.
Ventsi Bozhkov, Hydraulic Engineer (in Bulgarian):
“What I see is human greed. Nowhere else in the world do they build on riverbeds or streams. This stream was in their way, and to get rid of it so they could build more buildings, they covered it up.”
Carpets of concrete
On the subject of urban construction, Green to Grey is a cross-border data project, led by journalists from 11 different European countries, that looks into the continent’s disappearing green spaces. The precise term they use is ‘soil artificialisation’, which is the transformation of natural or agricultural land into built-up or paved areas, leading to a loss of the soil’s natural functions and qualities.
The results of the survey, which have just been published, reveal that every year, Europe is losing 1,500 square kilometres of land to construction. That’s the equivalent of 600 football pitches every single day – and far more than previous estimates.
Raphaëlle Aubert, a Le Monde journalist and co-author of the survey, tells euradio that this creeping artificialisation poses a number of risks.
Raphaëlle Aubert, Co-Author of the Green to Grey Survey (in French):
“Firstly, of course, there is the competition with our agricultural land, which enables us to feed ourselves and which is gradually being covered by logistics warehouses, houses and hotels. But the ecological functions of the soil are also being permanently degraded. We may not realise it, but soil is full of life and biodiversity, and it has functions such as heat preservation, since it has the capacity to store heat, regulate temperatures and store carbon. When soil is artificialised, it releases carbon and can no longer store it. A lot of greenhouse gas emissions are linked to artificialisation.”
And the risks do not stop there, as our Bulgarian experts are all too aware.
Raphaëlle Aubert, Co-Author of the Green to Grey Survey (in French):
“Another concern is that natural soils regulate the water cycle. They prevent flooding. They send water where it should go. And soil that has become impermeable because of concrete will redirect the water where we would not like it to go. That means, for example, towards homes and roads. It will create floods where previously it prevented them.”
In 2021, the EU set a goal to offset land taken for construction with an equal area of nature restoration by 2050. So far, says Green to Grey, this non-binding strategy has failed to significantly slow the loss of green spaces.
But green is not the only colour under threat. Blue is not faring too well either.
The Baltic Sea, for example, is the most polluted sea in Europe. Its problems include a rising water temperature, biodiversity loss, depleted fish stocks, an excess growth of plant life, and high levels of contaminants such as pharmaceuticals and plastic waste.
With Sweden one of the eight EU countries bordering this body of water, the Commission held a conference in Stockholm on 30 September to keep the issue on everybody’s radar. In the run-up to the conference, Isabella Lövin, a Swedish Green MEP, outlined some of the key challenges to our colleagues at Latvijas Radio.
Isabella Lövin, Member of the European Parliament – Greens-EFA, Sweden (in English):
“The Baltic Sea is in a very urgent condition, also because of warming, climate change… There are some 80 to 90 million people that live around the Baltic Sea. And what we are doing is affecting the water. It is very, very shallow. If you compare the Baltic Sea to the Mediterranean, for instance, the Baltic is on average 55 metres deep, while the Mediterranean has an average depth of 1.5 kilometres. [The Baltic] contains four per cent of the water mass that the Black Sea has. So, it’s so fragile. There’s so little water there. And what we’re doing is affecting it much faster than other sea areas.”
So, we are fighting on all fronts, and a lot seems to be riding on the European Council summit at the end of this month. But all the challenges notwithstanding, Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen promised, when speaking at the Climate Summit in New York at the end of September, that Europe would “stay the course”.
