On Wednesday, the European Council and Parliament struck a provisional deal to amend the European Climate Law, introducing a binding target of reducing net greenhouse gas emissions by 90% by 2040 compared to levels recorded in 1990.

In a statement released on Wednesday to announce the deal, EU chief Ursula von der Leyen said, “Today, the EU is showing our strong commitment to climate action and the Paris Agreement. One month after COP30, we have turned our words into action”.

Germany’s environment minister Carsten Schneider also welcomed the agreement, stating that “the new EU climate target is probably the most significant climate policy decision of this term,” and said it would help ensure Europe stays on course with climate action.

However, environmentals criticized the “loopholes and backdoors that will result in hundreds of millions of tonnes of additional domestic emissions” as stated by Carbon Market Watch. In practice, the target is actually just 85% as the agreement allows the use of high-quality international carbon credits to cover 5% of the emissions cuts.

Further flexibilities include “the use of domestic permanent removals in the EU ETS to compensate for residual hard-to-abate emissions” and the possibility for Member States “to compensate for shortfalls in one sector without compromising overall progress.”

The agreement was described by Reuters as “a political compromise after months of negotiations” with countries including Poland, Slovakia and Hungary opposing more ambitious targets in order to protect struggling industrial sectors.