The European Union has committed to a target that no other major economy has put into legally binding form: 90 percent fewer greenhouse gases by 2040, measured against the 1990 baseline. The EU Council approved the measure on March 5, 2026; the updated European Climate Law entered into force on April 7, 2026. At least 85 percentage points of the reduction must be achieved within the EU itself. Only five percentage points may be offset through international carbon credits.
What the law requires
The 2040 target is legally binding and supplements the existing climate neutrality goal for 2050. For EU member states, this means national emissions must be on a trajectory consistent with these overall targets by 2040. The European Commission must propose sector-specific targets by the end of 2026, which will feed into revisions of the EU emissions trading system, the burden-sharing arrangements between member states and land-use regulation.
The requirement that at least 85 percent of reductions be achieved domestically is deliberately strict. The EU is limiting the scope for buying offsets abroad, a practice that Australia and Canada have used extensively for previous climate commitments. Those who cannot cut emissions on their own territory can only compensate a small fraction through certificates from forests or projects in other countries.
A long road through politics
The agreement was not straightforward. Negotiations between the European Parliament and the EU Council stretched into December 2025. Parliament voted on February 9, 2026; the Council followed on March 5. The law was signed on March 11, published in the Official Journal on March 18 and entered into force on April 7, 2026.
Several eastern European member states resisted. Countries such as the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Poland, whose energy mixes still depend heavily on coal, pushed for more flexible rules on international credits and longer transition periods for energy-intensive industries. Hungary abstained. Supporters led by Germany, France and the Scandinavian countries secured a qualified majority without needing unanimity.
How this compares to other major economies
The international comparison shows how ambitious the EU target is. The United States under the current administration has withdrawn from its Paris Agreement commitments. China has pledged climate neutrality by 2060 without binding intermediate targets for 2040. India aims for climate neutrality only by 2070.
That does not mean the EU target is easily achievable. Between the legal commitment and actual emissions trajectories lies a great deal of political and technical work. In 1990, EU emissions stood at roughly 5.6 billion tonnes of CO2 equivalent. By 2023 they had fallen to around 3.2 billion tonnes, about 43 percent below the starting point. Achieving 90 percent by 2040 would require the pace of reductions to accelerate substantially, from the current roughly 2.5 percent per year to more than 5 percent annually.
Where the effects will be felt
The strongest impacts are expected in three sectors. In energy, a 90 percent reduction effectively means the end of fossil fuel power generation in the EU by 2040. In transport, combustion engines must be phased out considerably faster than previously planned. In industry, particularly steel, cement and chemicals, major investments in carbon-free production processes will be needed.
For households, the direct impact of the law is initially abstract. The concrete effects come through the sectoral regulations that the Commission is required to propose by the end of 2026: new standards for heating systems, revised vehicle emissions rules, adjusted emissions trading prices. These detailed laws in the coming months will show whether the political commitment can hold to the pace it has set. Climate groups including Greenpeace and the World Wildlife Fund describe the target as a necessary condition for keeping warming within 1.5 degrees, but see the gap between law and actual implementation speed as the defining challenge of the coming years.