Changes from adopted text to adopted text

RemovedP10_TA(2025)0262

AddedP10_TA(2026)0031

Framework for achieving climate neutrality

Committee on the Environment, Climate and Food Safety

PE775.698

ChangedAmendments adopted by the European Parliament onlegislative 13resolution Novemberof 202510 February 2026 on the proposal for a regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council amending Regulation (EU) 2021/1119 establishing the framework for achieving climate neutrality (COM(2025)0524 – C10-0137/2025 – 2025/0524(COD))

(Ordinary legislative procedure: first reading)

RemovedRecital 2: (2) Through the adoption of Regulation (EU) 2021/1119 of the European Parliament and of the Council5 , the Union has enshrined in legislation a binding objective of economy-wide climate neutrality by 2050, thus reducing greenhouse gas emissions to net zero by that date, and the aim of achieving negative emissions thereafter. That Regulation also established a binding Union 2030 intermediate climate target and requires the setting of a Union-wide intermediate climate target for 2040.

Change 1

AddedThe European Parliament,

RemovedRecital 3: (3) Taking into account the scientific advice by the European Scientific Advisory Board on Climate Change (‘the Advisory Board’) and based on a detailed Impact Assessment, the Commission presented a recommended target of a 90% net greenhouse gas emission reduction compared to 1990 levels for 2040 in its Communication of 6 February 2024 on Securing our future: Europe's 2040 climate target and path to climate neutrality by 2050 building a sustainable, just and prosperous society6 .

Added– having regard to the Commission proposal to Parliament and the Council (COM(2025)0524),

RemovedRecital 4: (4) In order to propose the Union 2040 climate target, the Commission considered the best available and most recent scientific evidence, including the latest reports of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and the Advisory Board; the social, economic and environmental impacts, including the costs of inaction; the need to ensure a just and socially fair transition for all; cost-effectiveness and economic efficiency; competitiveness of the Union’s economy, in particular small and medium-sized enterprises and sectors most exposed to carbon leakage; best available cost-effective, safe and scalable technologies; energy efficiency including the ‘energy efficiency first’ principle, energy affordability and security of supply for all Member States; fairness and solidarity between and within Member States; the need to ensure environmental effectiveness and progression over time; the need to maintain, manage and enhance natural sinks in the long term and protect and restore biodiversity, including in the marine environment; investment needs and opportunities; international developments and efforts undertaken to achieve the long-term objectives of the Paris Agreement and the ultimate objective of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC); existing information on the projected indicative Union greenhouse gas budget for the 2030-2050 period.

Added– having regard to Article 294(2) and Article 192(1) of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, pursuant to which the Commission submitted the proposal to Parliament (C10-0137/2025),

RemovedRecital 5: (5) In order to achieve the 2040 climate target it is essential to, inter alia, fully implement the agreed 2030 policy framework, ensure and provide support to enhance and bolster the competitiveness and resilience of the European industry, ensure sustainable food systems as well as the resilience of rural communities and food security through a sustainable and robust European agricultural sector, ensure transition pathways based on best available cost-effective, safe and scalable technologies, and set a greater focus on a just transition for affected regions, sectors and vulnerable households that leaves no one behind, for example through support from the Social Climate Fund in the transition to climate neutrality. Further, it is essential to ensure fair competition with international partners, and to make effective use of all EU economic instruments to deter and counter unfair trade practices, decarbonise the energy system with a technologically neutral approach that includes all zero and low carbon energy solutions (including renewables, nuclear, energy efficiency, storage, CCS, CCU, carbon removals, geothermal and hydro-energy, sustainable bioenergy and all other current and future net-zero energy technologies), reduce import dependencies and diversify the EU’s sources of critical raw materials, and organise a strategic dialogue on the post-2030 framework with all relevant sectors, including industry and transport.

Added– having regard to Article 294(3) of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union,

RemovedRecital 5 a (new): (5a) In its conclusions of 23 October 2025, the European Council stated that enhancing the Union’s competitiveness, bolstering its resilience, and advancing the green transition are mutually reinforcing objectives that must be pursued together, and called for an urgent stepping up of efforts to secure the supply of affordable and clean energy and build a genuine Energy Union before 2030, including by leveraging the new Energy Union Task Force, as well as for accelerating work aimed at lowering energy prices and supporting sustainable energy production domestically in the Union. With a view to ensuring a cost-effective, fair and just, pragmatic and socially balanced transition towards climate neutrality, taking into account different national circumstances, both private and public sector investment, including through Union funding, will be a key enabler for the clean transition, for example by supporting and accelerating the deployment and commercialisation of innovative technologies across Member States, supporting access to industrial renewal and decarbonisation, clean tech manufacturing and the modernisation of energy systems as well as providing affordable solutions across the economy and for citizens throughout the Union. The Clean Industrial Deal is putting in place the conditions for a successful transition, focussing on both decarbonisation and industrial renewal, which will contribute to boosting demand for ‘made in Europe’, and support mechanisms for European industr…

Added– having regard to the reasoned opinion submitted, within the framework of Protocol No 2 on the application of the principles of subsidiarity and proportionality, by the Italian Senate, asserting that the draft legislative act does not comply with the principle of subsidiarity,

RemovedRecital 5 a a (new): (5aa) Furthermore, the European Council also recalled in its conclusions of 23 October 2025 the urgent need to intensify collective efforts to ensure Europe’s industrial renewal, modernisation and decarbonisation in a technologically neutral manner. It underlined in this context that particular attention should be paid to traditional industries, notably the automotive, shipping, and aviation industries as well as energy-intensive industries, such as steel and metals, chemicals, cement, glass and ceramics, and pulp and paper, so that they remain resilient and competitive in a global market and a challenging geopolitical environment. In this regard, it welcomed the recent Commission proposal to protect the European steel sector from unfair impacts of global overcapacity. It also welcomed the Commission’s intention to take forward the review foreseen under the Regulation on CO2 emissions performance standards for cars and vans, and it called for the swift presentation of this proposal, taking into account technological neutrality and European content. In this context, the European Council also welcomed the recent letter from the President of the Commission on climate and competitiveness.

Added– having regard to the opinion of the European Economic and Social Committee of 18 September 2025,

RemovedRecital 5 b (new): (5b) The Clean Industrial Deal also focuses on better access to public and private finance, an integrated and interconnected Union energy market ensuring energy security, promotion of circular economy, a global level playing field including through the effective implementation and extension of CBAM to downstream goods, introducing anti-circumvention measures and action to address export carbon leakage, and clear enabling conditions such as streamlined permitting and the uptake and scaling of clean technologies, in order to strengthen the Union’s competitive edge and industrial competitiveness as well as innovation in the EU taking into account the challenging geopolitical environment.

Added– after consulting the Committee of the Regions,

RemovedRecital 7: (7) Priority should be given to domestic reductions in greenhouse gas emissions, complementing it by increased removals, including through both natural and technological solutions. In the development of the post-2030 policy package, due attention should be paid to the contribution of gross emission reductions versus natural and technological removals. Natural removals have characteristics that should be taken into account, such as forest age structure, proportion of organic soils, natural variability, and uncertainties related to the impacts of climate change, to natural disturbances and to changes in methodologies. Natural and industrial removals play an increasing role in the Union’s economy in the next decades, in view of the need to balance greenhouse gas emissions and removals at the latest by 2050 and negative emissions thereafter. Incentives will be developed in the context of the review of Directive 2003/87/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council7 in 2026, where the Commission envisages to provide for the inclusion of domestic permanent carbon removals in the EU emissions trading system (‘EU ETS’) to compensate for residual hard to abate emissions. The land use, land use change and forestry sector has a central role in a sustainable and circular bioeconomy and has the potential to provide long-term climate and environmental benefits contributing to the clean transition of the EU economy and reducing dependencies by substituting fossil-based materials.

Added– having regard to the provisional agreement approved by the committee responsible under Rule 75(4) of its Rules of Procedure and the undertaking given by the Council representative by letter of 19 December 2025 to approve Parliament’s position, in accordance with Article 294(4) of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union,

RemovedRecital 7 a (new): (7a) While some enabling policies have already been implemented and their impact is already visible, this is not yet the case for all. The Commission should continue to strengthen the initiatives concerning the enabling framework and aim to accelerate their adoption to ensure that conditions are in place to support European industry and citizens throughout the transition, in full respect of Union law.

Added– having regard to Rule 60 of its Rules of Procedure,

RemovedRecital 8: (8) The Union has in place a regulatory framework to achieve the 2030 climate target. The legislation implementing that target consists, inter alia, of Directive 2003/87/EC, which establishes the EU ETS, Regulation (EU) 2018/842 of the European Parliament and of the Council8 , which introduced national targets for reduction of greenhouse gas emissions by 2030, and Regulation (EU) 2018/841 of the European Parliament and of the Council9 , which sets net carbon removal targets for the land use sector. In order to ensure a smooth transition to the EU ETS2, the application of Article 30(k)(2) letters (a) to (e) of Directive 2003/87/EC should be postponed of one year. The Commission should assess how the relevant Union legislation would need to be amended in order to achieve the 2040 climate target, also taking into account declining natural sink capacity. When designing the post-2030 framework, the Commission should prepare detailed impact assessments, taking into account its analysis of the integrated national energy and climate plans, the geopolitical environment, including the need to ensure the Union’s and its Member States’ capacity to rapidly increase and strengthen their defensive capacity by addressing possible burdens while maintaining incentives for industrial decarbonisation, the impacts on competitiveness, on small and medium-sized enterprises and energy intensive industries, and impacts on energy costs and investment needs across Member States, and consider taking nec…

Added– having regard to the opinion of the Committee on Industry, Research and Energy,

RemovedRecital 8 a (new): (8a) A number of elements to facilitate the achievement of the 2040 climate target should be appropriately reflected, including an adequate contribution towards the 2040 climate target of high-quality international credits under Article 6 of the Paris Agreement, in the second part of the 2031-2040 decade, in a way that is both ambitious and cost-efficient and in line with accounting rules of the Paris Agreement, including a pilot period to initiate a high-quality and high-integrity international credit market for the period 2031-2035; the role of domestic permanent removals (such as Biogenic emissions Capture with Carbon Storage (BioCCS) and Direct Air Capture with Carbon Storage (DACCS)) in the EU ETS while ensuring the environmental integrity of the EU ETS, including the possibility to store CO2 outside the Union, as appropriate, subject to the existence of international agreements and providing for conditions equivalent to those laid out in Union law; and enhanced and accessible flexibility across and within sectors and instruments to support a cost-effective approach whereby for example Member States’ achievements in one sector can balance gaps in others in a cost-efficient way while ensuring that each sector contributes to the efforts and ensuring that possible shortfalls in one sector would not be at the expense of other economic sectors, without prejudice to each Member State’s possibility to make use of the flexibilities. In operationalising the use of international c…

Added– having regard to the letter from the Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development,

RemovedRegulation (EU) 2021/1119

Added– having regard to the report of the Committee on the Environment, Climate and Food Safety (A10-0223/2025),

RemovedArticle 1 – paragraph 1 – point 2, Article 4 – paragraph 4 – subparagraph 2: The Commission shall continue to strengthen the initiatives concerning the enabling framework and aim to accelerate their adoption and implementation to ensure that conditions are in place to support affected legal and natural persons, such as European industry and citizens throughout the transition, towards the targets set out in paragraphs 1 and 3 of this Article, the objective set out in Article 2(1) and a climate-neutral economy.

Added1. Adopts its position at first reading hereinafter set out;

RemovedRegulation (EU) 2021/1119

Added2. Calls on the Commission to refer the matter to Parliament again if it replaces, substantially amends or intends to substantially amend its proposal;

RemovedArticle 1 – paragraph 1 – point 2, Article 4 – paragraph 5 – introductory part: Within the framework of the review referred to in the first subparagraph of paragraph 4, in order to facilitate the achievement of the target set out in paragraph 3 of this Article, the Commission shall ensure that the following elements are appropriately reflected in the legislative proposals:

Added3. Instructs its President to forward its position to the Council, the Commission and the national parliaments.

RemovedRegulation (EU) 2021/1119

AddedP10_TC1-COD(2025)0524

RemovedArticle 1 – paragraph 1 – point 2, Article 4 – paragraph 5 – point a: (a) Starting from 2036, an adequate contribution towards the 2040 climate target of high-quality international credits under Article 6 of the Paris Agreement of up to 5% of 1990 EU net emissions corresponding to a domestic reduction of net greenhouse gas emissions by 85% compared to 1990 levels by 2040, in a way that is both ambitious and cost-efficient, supporting the EU and third countries in achieving net greenhouse gas reduction trajectories compatible with the Paris Agreement objective to hold the increase in the global average temperature to well below 2 °C and pursue efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1,5 °C above pre-industrial levels ensuring the environmental integrity of these credits, while promoting the EU’s technological leadership; a pilot period to initiate a high-quality and high-integrity international credit market may be considered for the period 2031-2035; the origin, quality criteria and other conditions concerning the acquisition and use of any such credits shall be regulated in Union law to ensure that they are based on credible and transformative activities in partner countries whose climate targets and policies are compatible with the targets of the Paris Agreement and are subject to robust safeguards ensuring integrity, avoidance of double counting, additionality, permanence, transparent governance, strong monitoring, reporting and verification methodologies, as well as economic, social and environmental co-benefits and human rights safegu…

AddedPosition of the European Parliament adopted at first reading on 10 February 2026 with a view to the adoption of Regulation (EU) 2026/… of the European Parliament and of the Council amending Regulation (EU) 2021/1119 as regards the setting of a Union intermediate climate target for 2040

RemovedRegulation (EU) 2021/1119

Added(As an agreement was reached between Parliament and Council, Parliament's position corresponds to the final legislative act, Regulation (EU) 2026/667.)

RemovedArticle 1 – paragraph 1 – point 2, Article 4 – paragraph 5 – point b: (b) the role of domestic permanent removals under the greenhouse gas emission allowance trading system within the Union (‘EU ETS’) to compensate for residual hard-to-abate emissions;

RemovedRegulation (EU) 2021/1119

RemovedArticle 1 – paragraph 1 – point 2, Article 4 – paragraph 5 – point c: (c) enhanced flexibility within and across sectors and instruments, to support the achievement of targets in a simple and cost-effective way;

RemovedRegulation (EU) 2021/1119

RemovedArticle 1 – paragraph 1 – point 2, Article 4 – paragraph 5 – point c a (new): (ca) the realistic contribution of carbon removals to the overall emission reduction effort, while taking into account the uncertainties of natural removals and ensuring that possible shortfalls would not be at the expense of other economic sectors, without prejudice to the possibility for Member States to use surplus natural removals to compensate their emissions in other sectors;

RemovedRegulation (EU) 2021/1119

RemovedArticle 1 – paragraph 1 – point 2, Article 4 – paragraph 5 – point c b (new): (cb) the need to maintain, manage and enhance, as appropriate, natural sinks in the long term and protect and restore biodiversity, to promote sustainable and circular bioeconomy, as well as take into account the effects of differences in forest age structure, natural variability and uncertainties notably those linked to the impacts of climate change and natural disturbances in the land use, land use change and forestry sector;

RemovedRegulation (EU) 2021/1119

RemovedArticle 1 – paragraph 1 – point 2, Article 4 – paragraph 5 – point d: (d) Member States post-2030 targets and efforts should reflect cost-efficiency and solidarity, taking into account different national circumstances and specificities, including those of islands and outermost regions;

RemovedRegulation (EU) 2021/1119

RemovedArticle 1 – paragraph 1 – point 2, Article 4 – paragraph 5 – point f: (f) the social, economic and environmental impacts across Member States including in relation to the objectives of decarbonisation and competitiveness for European industry;

RemovedRegulation (EU) 2021/1119

RemovedArticle 1 – paragraph 1 – point 2, Article 4 – paragraph 5 – point h: (h) the need to ensure and support a fair and just, pragmatic, cost-effective and socially balanced transition for all, taking into account different national circumstances and paying particular attention to impacts on consumer prices, energy and transport poverty and to regions and sectors, including their investment capacity, small and medium-sized enterprises, farmers and vulnerable households affected by the transition to climate neutrality;

RemovedRegulation (EU) 2021/1119

RemovedArticle 1 – paragraph 1 – point 2, Article 4 – paragraph 5 – point i: (i) simplification and reduction of administrative burden, technology neutrality, cost-effectiveness, economic efficiency, and economic security;

RemovedRegulation (EU) 2021/1119

RemovedArticle 1 – paragraph 1 – point 2, Article 4 – paragraph 5 – point j: (j) climate action as a driver for investment, innovation and increased competitiveness;