Already in 2049, EU member nations must be nearing net zero. Within the coming 17 years, the member states must reduce their emissions by 90-95%, against 1990 levels.

This is the current advice from the European Scientific Advisory Board on Climate Change, also simply known as the climate advisory board.

The chair of the advisory board, professor Ottmar Edenhofer, posits that the new 2040 target is an important intermediate on the way toward a climate neutral Europe in 2050.

”To do this [achieving climate neutrality in 2050], the EU should reduce emissions by 90-95% by 2040, relative to 1990 levels,” Edenhofer comments in a press release from the climate advisory board.

Denmark already has a target of slashing 70% off greenhouse gas emissions by2030 as well as going net zero prior to 2050.

The EU’s official target is currently to reduce the member nations’ emissions by 55% before 2030.

The union has, however, also taken it upon itself to set a fixed reduction target for 2040 during the first half-year of 2024.

According to the Confederation of Danish Industries’ head of climate and energy endeavors, Anne Højer Simonsen, Denmark ought to take the lead and live up to the target.

”There’s no getting around the EU, and whatever happens in Brussels has a major impact on Danish economy and Danish business.”

”Our Danish mitigation strides should be a source of inspiration for others – and the efforts’ success are in no small part aided by the EU showing its international climate leadership,” Højer Simonsen states in a press release.

The climate advisory board has analyzed more than 1,000 different ways to achieve climate neutrality in 2050.

Several of these point to a significant upscaling of energy production from wind turbines and solar cells. In combination with increased electrification of energy consumptions, such upscaling could lead the EU towards something very near to a climate-neutral energy sector prior to 2040, according to the board.

Furthermore, ”these pathways also minimize the EU’s reliance on removal of CO₂ from the atmosphere,” the advisory board writes in the press release.