A warning from the IPCC: the EU 2030’s climate target cannot be based on science alone

The European Union often emphasizes that it is pursuing a 'science-based' climate policy. The European Council’s long-term emission reduction target of 80-95% by 2050 explicitly refers to the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). Thus, it came as a surprise for many European policymakers and stakeholders that the latest IPCC report did not offer any specific guidelines on future EU climate targets. Brigitte Knopf from the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) and Oliver Geden from the German Institute for International and Security Affairs (SWP), two leading institutions in the field of scientific policy advice, argue in line with the philosophy of the new IPCC report that the question of adequate EU targets for 2030 or 2050 cannot be based purely on science, but must ultimately be decided in the political arena.