Contrary to its own proposal to curb power subsidies with an emissions limit, the European Commission has approved the Polish capacity mechanism that will allow the country to subsidise coal-fired power plants for decades to come. This will severely undermine the EU's ability to implement the Paris Agreement.

Read more: Commission gives go ahead to Poland’s massive coal subsidies

Today EU Energy Ministers have adopted their positions on four legislative proposals under the Clean Energy Package, which will guide the EU’s energy transition in the coming decade and beyond.

Turning their backs on the Paris Agreement, the ministers opted for a feeble renewable energy target, lax rules for ensuring that all EU countries contribute to the energy transition and massive coal subsidies in the EU’s power market.

Read more: EU governments’ positions would stifle renewable energy revolution

Today the European Parliament adopted its position on three legislative proposals under the Clean Energy Package, namely the revisions of the Renewable Energy Directive and the Energy Efficiency Directive, and the new Governance Regulation, which will guide the EU’s zero-carbon transition in the coming decade and beyond.

MEPs raised the ambition of the future clean energy laws, by voting in favour of increasing the EU’s 2030 renewable energy and energy efficiency targets to at least 35 percent and raising its long-term target to net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 at the latest.

Read more: MEPs call for more ambition in future clean energy laws

Statement on behalf of Climate Action Network Europe, Carbon Market Watch, European Environmental Bureau, Sandbag, Transport & Environment, and WWF European Policy Office.

EU governments must step back from irreparably weakening Europe’s biggest climate law, six of Europe’s leading environmental NGOs have said, after talks between member states and the European Parliament ended in deadlock this week. The proposed Effort Sharing Regulation sets binding national emission reduction targets for the 2021-2030 period, but governments are insistent on loopholes that would actually result in hundreds of millions of tonnes in additional CO2 emissions.

Read more: Two-faced EU governments are gutting Europe’s key climate law, say 6 NGOs