Almost every EU country blows major climate plan deadline

BRUSSELS — Governments are dragging their feet on a required plan to make the European Union’s climate ambitions a reality, jeopardizing efforts to eradicate the bloc’s global warming contributions by midcentury.

Only four of the 27 EU governments — the Netherlands, Denmark, Finland and Sweden — met a Sunday deadline to submit their so-called National Energy and Climate Plans, a core document for officials to show how they’re going to hit their share of the bloc’s emissions-cutting target for 2030. A fifth, Italy, filed its plan on Monday.

It’s the second consecutive blow in the process. Most EU countries were already late last year in submitting drafts of their climate plans. And when the documents did finally trickle in, the EU executive’s verdict was damning: The plans, it said, showed the bloc wouldn’t hit its 2030 goal to slash at least 55 percent of its emissions compared with 1990 levels.

Each country was required to amend its draft to make up for the shortfall by June 30.