Germany, France, UK Press for Tougher Emission Targets After Paris Deal

Germany, France and Britain pressed the European Union for more ambitious greenhouse gas targets at a meeting of environment ministers on Friday, clashing with the EU executive and several eastern and central European states.

The big states led criticism of a draft text that said the bloc does not need to revise up its targets until the next decade as it tries to decide how to share out the burden of meeting those among its 28 member countries.

So far, the EU has agreed to cut emissions by at least 40 percent by 2030 from 1990 levels and to a first global stock-take in 2023.

Germany's Jochen Flasbarth called the European Commission text "weak on the 2030 objectives".

In a split council, he was joined by ministers from France, Britain, Austria, Belgium, Portugal and Sweden in calling for the EU to set an example with stronger targets.

Several ministers urged an earlier stock-take to ready for a special U.N. report in 2018 to get on track for net zero emissions in the second half of the century.

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