The 27% EU target – binding for the bloc as a whole, but which does not include the setting of binding national goals – accompanied a proposed 40% emissions reduction target in the EC’s 2030 climate and energy plan, released today.

EWEA claimed the proposed targets – which still must be approved by EU heads of state – are a “capitulation to anti-renewables lobby groups” that ignores the EU’s own parliament, which has already backed a 30% goal at its committee stage.

EWEA CEO Thomas Becker said: "The previously far-sighted and ambitious European Commission is a shadow of its former self, hiding behind the UK and other backward-looking Member States and lobbies.

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