BRUSSELS — The European Union is “well on track” to reach its 2030 goal to cut 55 percent of planet-warming emissions, according to new findings released Wednesday.  The European Commission, the EU’s executive, based the conclusions on countries’ updated climate plans, which governments have been filing in recent months. The assessment — which shows the EU on track to cut 54 percent of emissions by 2030 — reflects progress for the bloc, which previously said it was at risk of falling short of its 2030 goal based on prior climate plans.  “When we play our cards and instruments in a smart manner, we deliver as a continent,” EU competition and climate chief Teresa Ribera told POLITICO ahead of the presentation. But the updated figure — which is measured against 1990 emission levels — also relies on countries delivering on fresh promises despite a green backlash and surging focus on defense spending. The Commission warned the EU not to rest on its laurels, noting in its analysis that the bloc isn’t doing enough to address energy poverty and support left behind in the green transition.  Governments are also falling short on a few targets, including a drive to create enough “carbon sinks” via healthy forest and land area to absorb the equivalent of 310 million tons of CO2 annually by the end of the decade. EU members are also behind on energy efficiency goals. The bloc is projected to reduce energy consumption by only 8.1 percent — short of an 11.7 percent target for 2030. Meanwhile, Belgium, Estonia and Poland have not submitted updated climate plans.  “This is the first time that the aggregated result is align[ed] with the Paris Agreement: That is good news,” said French centrist MEP Pascal Canfin, who was involved in negotiating the European Green Deal, referencing the landmark 2016 global climate accord.  Yet he cautioned that the findings also reveal “the weakness of our carbon sink as a consequence of the deteriorating state of our forest,” which “is worrying and needs to be addressed.” On its renewable power goals — which require installing energy sources like wind and solar — the EU is on pace to generate 41 percent of its energy from renewable sources by 2030, just shy of the 42.5 percent goal.  The assessment also calls on countries to better prepare and adapt society for climate change’s inevitable ramifications. Only a handful of countries are addressing increasing water scarcity, for instance. And it bemoaned the work being done to end fossil fuel subsidies, saying “a list of existing fossil fuel subsidies, concrete timelines, and measures to phase them out are largely missing.” Reaching all of these goals will be expensive, the report conceded. The EU will need roughly €570 billion annually until 2030 to get there, the Commission said. But it noted that the bloc spent €430 billion on fossil fuel imports in 2023.  That cash “could be redirected to invest in the clean transition toward a more autonomous and secure EU,” it said. The EU will soon unveil a proposal to cut 90 percent of emissions by 2040 — although with some new “flexibilities” on how countries can get there. 

The Trump administration’s dismantling of the U.S. Agency for International Development may be the first step in a broader plan to use foreign aid as a support system for fossil fuels. Since taking office, President Donald Trump has put a 90-day freeze on most foreign assistance, ordered an end to diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs, and deployed Tesla CEO Elon Musk to slash federal agencies and personnel. It’s all in line with Project 2025, the policy handbook produced by the Heritage Foundation with input from more than 100 conservative organizations. The administration’s attempts to entirely dismantle USAID — led by unelected billionaire Musk — go beyond what Project 2025 proposed. Musk has said he is “feeding USAID into the woodchipper,” and the Trump administration has moved to fold the agency into the State Department. A federal judge Friday temporarily blocked the Trump administration from putting thousands of the agency’s employees on leave. It’s unclear whether Musk and the Heritage Foundation are on the same page, and neither responded to requests for comment. But Project 2025 offers insight into what Trump allies want out of U.S. foreign aid: the promotion of fossil fuels and the elimination of foreign country regulations that American industry finds burdensome. The conservative blueprint calls for downsizing the agency’s work, rescinding its climate policies and shuttering programs aimed at curbing global warming. It pushes anti-labor union reforms in Latin America, admonishes USAID for cutting off “clean fossil fuels” in Africa and proposes using taxpayer dollars to “promote private-sector solutions to the world’s true development problems.” “USAID should cease its war on fossil fuels in the developing world and support the responsible management of oil and gas reserves as the quickest way to end wrenching poverty and the need for open-ended foreign aid,” the blueprint says. A State Department spokesperson did not respond directly to questions about its intentions for USAID, saying Secretary of State Marco Rubio is initiating a review of all foreign assistance programs to ensure they are efficient and consistent with Trump’s America First agenda. The agency referred any questions about USAID to the statement on its website about personnel cuts. The executive order that prompted the 90-day aid freeze calls for Rubio and other agency heads, in consultation with the director of the Office of Management and Budget, to determine which programs to cease or modify. Newly confirmed OMB head Russell Vought was a key architect of Project 2025. During the Biden administration, USAID took on a greater role in addressing climate change — through projects focused on resilience and renewable energy — though it devoted only a fraction of its budget to the issue. Under Trump, USAID — if it survives — could become an agency just tasked with providing global food and humanitarian assistance, with international fossil fuel promotion doled out to other agencies. For example, the U.S. International Development Finance Corp., which provides private sector funding for development in lower- and middle-income countries, could be expanded to support bilateral efforts on fossil fuel projects, said Karen Mathiasen, a project director at the Center for Global Development. The Department of Energy also has a beefed-up Office of International Affairs after it got more funding and personnel during the first Trump administration. The office works across government to advance U.S. energy goals. Energy Secretary Chris Wright, a former fracking executive, has said global energy poverty could be achieved in part by increasing U.S. fossil fuel exports. “I can see the Trump people just repurposing aid to be some sort of pro-energy promotion kind of thing,” said Kurt Donnelly, former deputy assistant secretary of State for energy diplomacy during the first Trump administration. On it’s face, he said, helping provide poorer countries with reliable access to energy is a good idea. “But if the real goal of that program is just to sell them oil and natural gas as the solution to this, and they have to buy ours of course … that’s really a bad approach,” Donnelly said. THE MUSK FACTOR Aid has long been a “tool of foreign policy,” said Max Primorac, who wrote the Project 2025 chapter on USAID and is senior research fellow at the Heritage Foundation. Primorac, who served as a senior USAID official in the first Trump administration, did not respond to requests for comment for this story but spoke to POLITICO’s E&E News last year. “It’s perverse that, on the one hand, we’re talking about alleviating poverty through foreign aid, but adopting climate policies that actually aggravate poverty for the simple reason that we’re preventing them from investing their own oil and gas technologies and industries that could finance their own social services, to create wealth, jobs and be more sovereign,” he said last year. Some Republican lawmakers share that sentiment. During Rubio’s confirmation hearing for secretary of State, Wyoming Sen. John Barrasso asked the then-nominee if he was committed to ensuring the State Department promoted all forms of energy across the globe, including oil, gas and coal. “In fact, it should be a centerpiece … of our economic diplomacy,” Rubio responded. Rubio has tapped Peter Marocco, who heads the Office of Foreign Assistance at State, to be acting deputy administrator of USAID. The conservative movement’s plan for USAID is to ramp up funding to local faith-based organizations while dramatically slashing money flowing to international NGOs. But reshaping the agency into one that helps the U.S. achieve Trump’s vision of American energy dominance overlooks how markets have changed, argue former officials. “USAID isn’t pursuing its own agenda on renewable energy versus fossil fuels,” said Gillian Caldwell, the former chief climate officer at USAID under Biden. “We’re responding to a demand signal from partner governments around the world, almost all of whom are operating in a scenario in which the price of solar has dropped by 85 percent and the price of wind has dropped by 50 percent.” The moves to remake USAID have gotten muddied by Musk’s intervention. Musk and his so-called Department of Government Efficiency have been given unprecedented access to government infrastructure — including a critical Treasury Department payment system — and have moved quickly and possibly illegally to cut programs and personnel across the government. Congressional Republicans have largely stayed silent amid concerns that Musk’s moves violate Congress’ constitutional power of the purse. But lawsuits are starting to emerge, and Sen. Susan Collins, the Maine Republican who leads the Senate Appropriations Committee, said Wednesday that Musk has gone too far. Democrats have called the moves to shutter USAID corrupt, cruel and unconstitutional. “Getting rid of [USAID] makes us all less safe. It is also downright illegal,” Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md) said during a rally outside the Capital on Wednesday where a crowd chanted “Hey, hey, ho, ho, Elon Musk has got to go.” Even some conservative critics are concerned with the Trump administration’s blunt approach to downsizing government. Neither Musk nor Trump has the power to simply cut agencies or programs that have been funded by Congress, said Jessica Riedl, an economist at the conservative Manhattan Institute who has spent more than two decades identifying government waste. “I am sympathetic to the idea that there is significant waste and unnecessary expenditures in the federal budget, but the way to cut spending is to go through Congress and pass laws either rescinding or preventing the future appropriations of these programs,” she said. “The president can’t unilaterally cancel spending that has been approved by Congress and signed into law.” The Trump administration’s attempt to gut USAID has also stoked worries that without experts in place to administer foreign assistance, there will be more opportunities for fraud, waste and abuse, said Chris Milligan, a former USAID counselor during Trump’s first term. “Handing billions of dollars to a department that doesn’t have the right experience is not going to protect taxpayers’ money, is not going to make America safe and is not going to be effective for our foreign policy,” he said.

At a time when the European Union is striving to increase its competitiveness through its Competitiveness Compass, the new ecodesign rules for solid fuel local space heaters (i.e. your wood stove) may do the opposite. The European Commission is rolling out its ecodesign requirements with the aim of achieving resource and energy efficiency while boosting the circular use of materials that help decarbonization, competitiveness and economic security. Manufacturers underline that they are keen to help achieve that objective, but what’s currently on the table is not fit for purpose.   European manufacturers warn that the draft proposal published on Jan. 24, 2025 will not only undermine European competitiveness, but also destroy a European industry that accounts for 11,000 small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and around 200,000 jobs. Raymond Zantinge, president of the European Committee of Manufacturers of Domestic Heating and Cooking Appliances (CEFACD), said: “We are deeply committed and engaged in producing cleaner and greener ways to heat homes. However, innovation takes time. Setting unachievable standards to be met in unrealistic timelines derails our innovation journey. The draft text creates more uncertainty rather than achieving better outcomes. This is especially the case when new testing standards for products being rolled out are not scientifically backed. In fact, we can end up with products that are worse. Also, having these new standards come into force on Jul. 1, 2027 places an unreasonable burden on manufacturers, especially SMEs, with insufficient time for retesting, recertification and necessary product re-design. It feels very much like ideology getting in the way of science and, frankly, it risks jobs, growth and worse environmental outcomes.” The proposed requirements, in their current form, use widely untested and unreliable standards, that are not developed through the scientifically backed normalisation route approach through the European standardisation system (CEN). > It feels very much like ideology getting in the way of science and, frankly, > it risks jobs, growth and worse environmental outcomes.” > > Raymond Zantinge, president of CEFACD Manufacturers have underlined that a better roll-out would include reasonable testing standards as well as a more realistic period of five to seven years. This would allow for sufficient preparation and adaptation, aligning better with the industry’s capabilities and the goals of the European Competitiveness Compass. With over 41 million Europeans already struggling to keep their homes adequately warm, this roll-out plan leaves a large part of Europeans at risk of greater energy poverty. Many of us rely on local space heaters, particularly in recent months with the cold weather in Europe. This locally sourced technology is used to improve our everyday lives, providing comfort and essential heating while supporting Europe’s energy sovereignty. As we transition to renewable energy in Europe, energy prices remain high, and domestic stoves offer a stable and manageable low-carbon heat source that reduces the strain on electric grids and gas networks. These stoves are particularly vital for vulnerable rural populations, providing cost-effective means to heat homes amid the ongoing challenges of energy security and affordability. > These stoves are particularly vital for vulnerable rural populations, > providing cost-effective means to heat homes amid the ongoing challenges of > energy security and affordability. Maintaining woodland sustainably produces fuel and promotes rural economies and supports responsible woodland management. The decline of this sector would not only impact energy affordability, but also our maintenance of rural woodlands and the renewable energy mix. Biomass, including wood, is the main source of renewable energy in the EU and there are sustainabity requirements for the wood and wood pellets used for heating homes. By eradicating solid fuel local space heaters, the Commission risks undermining this portion of our renewable energy mix, which is an essential heating source for some Europeans. Manufacturers also warn against the decision-making process. CEFACD’s secretary-general, James Verlaque, said:“We are really concerned that the requirements propose elements based on an impact assessment that has not been made available to us. It is important that the Commission is transparent on the impact of its proposal as, based on our assessment, this legislation is not fit for purpose. Legislation with such a strong impact on the European economy deserves involvement from the European Council and the European Parliament. Bringing in standards that have such huge ramifications with one institution acting alone does not allow for the necessary democratic oversight that this deserves.” The industry’s ability to innovate and improve to produce ever-cleaner burning, efficient stoves has been demonstrated through significant advancements made in products since the first Ecodesign Directive came into force. This included  increases in the efficiency of products so that they require less fuel to generate heat. It has also included improvements to the combustion technology of appliances, reducing emissions. Furthermore, the industry has made progress on transitioning toward a circular economy model, with products that now mainly consist of almost completely recyclable materials and have a long life span to reduce waste. The industry is speaking up in an unprecedented fashion to ensure that this important European market is not destroyed to the competitive advantage of international players bringing  product to the EU. > The EU’s pursuit of environmental ambition must be balanced with needing to > protect jobs, support SMEs and ensure energy affordability. The EU’s pursuit of environmental ambition must be balanced with needing to protect jobs, support SMEs and ensure energy affordability. The proposed Ecodesign Regulation , in its current form, risk undermining these objectives by imposing unrealistic standards and unvalidated testing methods on the solid fuel local space heaters sector. By adopting a more balanced and scientifically grounded approach, the EU can achieve its goals of decarbonisation and competitiveness without sacrificing the economic sustainability of a vital industry. Transparent and inclusive policymaking, informed by thorough impact assessments, is essential to navigate this complex landscape and ensure a prosperous and sustainable future for all European citizens.