BRUSSELS — The European Commission’s climate chief successfully lobbied Germany’s coalition government to endorse a controversial measure that weakens the EU’s next climate target.
Wopke Hoekstra, the EU executive’s climate commissioner, held talks with Germany’s Christian Democrats and Social Democrats (SPD) as they negotiated the climate chapter of their coalition agreement, two people who participated and another two people who were briefed on the talks told POLITICO.
During those discussions, Hoekstra — a member of the center-right European People’s Party, the political family of the German Christian Democrats — sought to influence the future government’s position on the EU’s 2040 climate target, the sources said.
In particular, he pushed both parties to support the commission’s recommendation for a 90 percent reduction in planet-warming emissions and persuaded a reluctant SPD to consent to the use of international carbon credits — a controversial mechanism that would allow the EU to meet part of its 2040 target by paying for climate projects in poorer countries.
