The agreement should be formally confirmed on Wednesday morning, said Hladík on the X network. According to the Reuters agency, the ministers reached an agreement in the morning agreements, the negotiations lasted 18 hours.
As the main concessions achieved for the Czech Republic, Hladík identified the fact that the system of new emission allowances ETS2 will, according to him, be postponed by one year and will be launched in 2028.
“The target by 2040 will be reduced to 85 percent for the entire EU, without binding targets for individual states. Up to five percent of emission reductions will be possible with the help of international credits from third countries – an advantage for Czech companies investing in clean projects abroad,” said the Czech minister.
“Technological neutrality will also be preserved in the revision of the rules for CO2 emissions from cars, which means space not only for electric cars, but also for alternative fuels. This is another step towards re-evaluating the ban on internal combustion engines after 2035,” the minister wrote, and as other negotiated points he mentioned, among other things, “maintaining a higher free allocation of allowances for Czech industry even after 2028” or “strengthened monitoring of the impacts of climate policies on employment and industry with the possibility of proposals relief or adjustment of goals”.
The European Commission proposed reducing carbon dioxide emissions by 90 percent by 2040 compared to 1990 at the beginning of July. Some states, such as the Czech Republic, Poland and Italy, advocated weakening the ninety percent climate goal, but Spain and Sweden refused. For example, Poland wanted ten percent of the ninety percent target to be achieved by purchasing so-called international carbon credits.
During the night on Wednesday, Hladík stated that the Czech Republic formed a group with Italians, Greeks, Bulgarians, Romanians, Slovaks, Poles, Hungarians, Austrians and Belgians, which promoted a realistic goal.
“The Czech Republic, together with other states, formed a strong blocking minority, thanks to which it was possible to negotiate a number of important concessions. For these reasons, some countries eventually supported the resulting text,” Hladík wrote on the social network this morning.
The Czech Minister of the Environment already stated upon his arrival at the meeting that the Czech Republic will not support the EU’s climate goal for 2040. According to him, the new climate goal should be realistic and correspond to technological possibilities and technological development. The reason for the previously announced Czech rejection was also that the EU executive did not prepare impact studies for individual industrial sectors, he added.
