EU looking to reinforce climate credentials during summit

BRUSSELS (AP) — Five years after the Paris agreement, the European Union’s climate credentials will be put to the test as the bloc's leaders meet Thursday to try and seal an agreement to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by at least 55% by the end of the decade compared to 1990 levels.

The EU wants to be a leader in the fight against global warming. But the bloc’s heads of states and governments were unable to agree on the new target the last time they met in October, mainly because of financial concerns among eastern countries about how to fund the green transition.

But now that the bloc’s leaders are ready to sign off on the EU’s next long-term budget and coronavirus recovery package, the record-high 1.82 trillion-euro package should help secure all 27 member states’ commitment to the improved target proposed by the commission, the EU's executive arm.

Large swaths of the budget and recovery aid are set to pour into programs and investments designed to help the member states, regions and sectors particularly affected by the green transition, which are in need of a deep economic and social transformation.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has said she wants 37% of the 750 billion euros in the coronavirus recovery fund to be given to EU countries to spend on environmental objectives, while 30% of the bloc’s regular budget should be used for tackling climate change.

Poland, which last year didn't commit to the EU’s 2050 climate neutrality goal, and other eastern countries, including the Czech Republic and Hungary, largely depend on coal for much of their energy needs. They consider it unfair that all member states should be submitted to the same ambition without taking into consideration their respective energy mixes.

László Palkovics, the Hungarian minister for innovation, told local...