As European Union ministers wavered on a 90% emissions target, Exxon challenged the bloc’s corporate sustainability rules, appealing to the Trump administration to block them.

Last week, environment ministers from the EU’s 27 member states failed to agree on a proposal to cut emissions 90% by 2040, on a path toward net-zero by 2050, the Financial Times reports. Instead, they signed a “statement of intent,” deferring the decision to an October summit.

The two-page statement addressed to the United Nations promises to submit a climate plan—a nationally determined contribution (NDC) outlining the bloc’s emissions reduction targets and actions—before the COP30 summit begins in November, writes Politico. The target is projected to fall between 66.25% and 72.5% below 1990 levels.

“This statement of intent is Olympic-level diplomatic gymnastics, a performance designed to avoid the embarrassment of arriving at COP empty-handed,” said Shirley Matheson of World Wildlife Fund. “When it comes to climate ambition, the EU shouldn’t just be competing, it should be setting the bar high.”

According to the Times, several EU countries want more flexibility for meeting the targets, like being able to use more offsets like tree planting, or exempting some sectors, like military spending, which already falls outside the scope of the 2015 Paris climate agreement. Carbon reduction plans that include offsetting schemes have been criticized in analyses that find them ineffective and potentially harmful to mitigation goals.

The 90% reduction target was opposed by Czechia, Slovakia, Poland, and Hungary, and supported by the Netherlands, Spain, Germany, Luxembourg and Austria. Without consensus, the EU cannot submit its 2035 target in time to be included in the UN’s annual synthesis report, which evaluates NDCs and their alignment with the Paris Agreement goal of keeping global warming well below 2°C.

On the sidelines of the EU’s decision-making, ExxonMobil is pushing back against the continent’s corporate sustainability due diligence directive (CSDDD), which requires companies to address human rights and environmental issues across their supply chains. Adopted last year, the directive imposes a baseline fine of 5% on revenue collected by a company which is not compliant with the requirements, explains Oil Price.

The 5% fine “frankly would be bone-crushing to any company,” Exxon CEO Darren Woods recently told Bloomberg. “We’re concerned that frankly, there are few people who understand the implications of this.”

Woods is calling for CSDDD to be revoked entirely and is speaking with the Donald Trump administration about his concerns, Reuters reports. Woods said that Exxon has sold, shut down, or exited nearly 19 operations due to what it claims is red tape, and has “slowly been pulling out of Europe.”

“This is another piece of legislation that would accelerate that incentive, or warrant businesses to reduce their activity in Europe.”

In March, U.S. Senator Bill Hagerty (R-TN) introduced a bill to protect American companies from having to comply with CSDDD, and Energy Secretary Chris Wright said CSDDD and other elements of the EU’s “crusade” toward net-zero threaten a U.S.-EU trade deal.

Other companies outside the EU have indicated they would rather not sell in Europe than pay significant “border taxes” under the new rules, writes Oil Price.  EU lawmakers are debating amending the directive to protect the bloc’s competitiveness.

Cover photo:  Thijs ter Haar/Flickr