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11/18/17

Climate Control: Germany slams Dutch call for more ambitious EU climate goal

Germany's outgoing environment minister said on Friday (17 November) that a Dutch proposal to increase the EU's emissions reduction target to 55 percent was "unrealistic".

"I don't think that the European Union will be capable of achieving this," minister Barbara Hendricks told this website at a press conference in Bonn, on the final day of international climate talks.

She spoke a day after newly-appointed Dutch minister for economic affairs and climate, Eric Wiebes, came to Bonn to find support for an increased climate ambition within the bloc.

In October 2014, EU leaders agreed that the EU should reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by at least 40 percent by 2030, compared with 1990 levels.

Wiebes wants to raise that reduction target to 55 percent, the same figure which Germany has set for itself.

"Germany wants to reduce by 55 percent and I'm quite convinced that we'll be able to achieve this," said Hendricks.

But she said "all of the EU" would not be able to do the same.
"We could be more ambitious, going a bit beyond the 40 percent already agreed, but I think 55 percent will not be realistic."

Read more: Germany slams Dutch call for more ambitious EU climate goal

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