It has been hotting up across Europe.
Not just the physical temperatures, but the political tussle as controversy rages over how the European Union may look to ‘soften’ its stringent climate transition goals to allow carbon credits to count towards them.
Until now, the assertive 2040 and longer-term goals have been reliant upon reducing emissions in the trading bloc itself, whereas being able to offset them to action in other regions amounts to “outsourcing”, critics say.
The EU’s climate chief even came out this week and said the proposals amounted to “political cowardice”.
It’s also hardly the best time to be having such a loaded debate, given the heatwave that has hit many parts of the continent over the past few days, with some locations on the brink of yet more record temperatures.
The debate over reducing national emissions reduction horizons to 90 per cent while being able to offset the remainder is one that countries are beginning to get across themselves, taking a steer from how the EU may change its landmark Green Deal in re-examining their own contributory targets.
As this Euro News piece illustrated, France has already been attempting to get ahead of things by setting out a potential framework.
Other forms of flexibility could involve absorbing emissions through carbon sinks, which are natural carbon absorbers, and permanent absorbers, which are technologies whose large-scale development has not yet been proven, the article says.
Broadly speaking, the EU is mostly on the front foot when it comes to progress already made towards the goals, whether they end up getting amended or not. The Financial Times reported last month that it is on target to achieve the intended 55 per cent reduction - a legal commitment - in greenhouse gas emissions by 2030.
But the proposed move to enabling carbon offsetting and ‘offshoring’ to get some countries over the goal line in the longer term will remain controversial, given the investment in extensive change that has already been made and the efforts still required to stay the course over the coming couple of decades.
In the short term, companies that are based in or trade with the EU - and those in non-member states whose governments may choose to follow suit in some form - will be watching closely to understand the detail and the flexibility, and consider what the implications of offsetting some of their emissions may be for their reputations.
