The EU recently unveiled its climate targets for 2040 and a roadmap for the next stage of its energy transition, four months before European elections and with the bloc reeling from a farmer revolt against green reforms.
The 27-nation European Union has pledged to be carbon neutral by 2050, and set a first interim target for 2030: to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 55 percent compared with 1990 levels.
For the next milestone, 2040, working documents suggest the European Commission will aim for a net drop of 90 percent -- which would mean roughly the same pace of cuts as it has pledged for 2020-2030.
But this time around, Brussels has to factor in growing discontent -- illustrated by the farmer protests of recent weeks -- over the social and economic impact of its much-vaunted Green Deal.
After successfully tackling the green transition in transport, energy and industry, the Green Deal has found itself on a collision course with the farming world -- and its champions in the European Parliament.
Across Europe, on the right of the political spectrum, there is an increasingly vocal backlash to the sweeping set of policies aimed at meeting the bloc's climate targets, and several leaders in the bloc are now calling for a "pause" in new environmental rules.
The EU's climate commissioner, Wopke Hoekstra, last month warned the bloc needed to keep standing "on two legs" -- with its climate ambition on one side, and on the other "making sure our businesses stay competitive, there is a just transition."
