The United Nntions environment chief has hailed Europe's plan to cut greenhouse gases 40 per cent by 2030 as a "positive" step towards a new international pact against global warming, but environment groups are not so sure.
Traditionally a pacesetter at UN climate talks, the European Union has come under mounting pressure from poorer, vulnerable countries to beef up its pledges to cut climate-changing carbon dioxide emissions.
On Wednesday, the European Commission, the 28-nation bloc's executive, proposed a binding reduction in greenhouse gases of 40 per cent by 2030 over 1990 levels.
Renewables should account for at least 27 per cent of the total energy mix by 2030, it said. This overall goal would be binding on the EU but not national governments.
Christiana Figueres, head of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), welcomed the announcement as a "positive signal for [a] meaningful 2015 agreement."
UN members have vowed to conclude a new global climate pact in Paris in December 2015.
The deal, to take effect from 2020, will seek to limit average global warming to two degrees Celsius over pre-industrial levels.
NGOs urged EU member states to raise the target when they meet at a summit in March.
The 2030 blueprint replaces an earlier plan for a 20 per cent cut in European emissions by 2020 and a 20 per cent share for renewables.
By the end of 2012, the EU had cut emissions by 18 per cent, while renewables had a share of 12.4 per cent in 2010, according to the latest official figures.