EU states agree date for zero carbon emissions

European Union leaders have taken a major step toward the continent becoming the first to be climate-neutral by agreeing a deal to reduce carbon emissions to net zero by 2050.

The goal was agreed by all member states except Poland, which has been granted extra time because of its heavy reliance on coal, and is one of the key promises made by signatories of the 2015 Paris Agreement on climate change.

The agreement was secured days after new European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen unveiled her European Green Deal, which she called Europe's "man on the moon" moment.

"It is very important, it was crucial, for Europe to show strong ambition," said EU Council President Charles Michel. "Nothing worth having comes easy ... But we did it!"

Poland still gets 80 percent of its energy from coal, and Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki secured exemption but said that the other EU member states had offered support for regions that would face the biggest challenges of the fossil fuel fade-out.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel said this was not a sign of any sort of split, just a matter of being practical.

"There is no division of Europe into different parts, but there is a member state that still needs a bit more time," she added.

Before the talks had even begun, Hungary's Prime Minister Viktor Orban said less well-off countries must not be dictated to.

"We cannot allow Brussels bureaucrats to have poor people and poor countries to pay the costs of the fight against climate change," he said, but it was the Poles and Czechs that held out the longest in negotiations with the Czechs demanding that they be allowed to use any support they received to build nuclear power stations, against the wishes of countries including Austria and Germany.

"It is important to have certainty that nobody will stop us in the construction of nuclear power units," Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babis told reporters. "We have to have electricity for people, for firms, and heating."

Michel, the EU Council president, said he recognized that meeting the new targets would be more challenging for some countries than others, which was why financial support would be available.

"We took this decision with respect for many concerns of different countries because we know that it's important to take into consideration the different national circumstances and also different starting points," he said.

A report issued by the EU in 2018 said the bloc had significantly reduced its emissions during the previous 20 years, but still contributed 9.6 percent of global carbon emissions each year.

This deal was reached at the end of a year that has seen record heatwaves all across Europe, with both Germany and France reporting their highest ever recorded temperatures this July, and climate change being blamed.