EU LEADERS AGREE TO REDUCE EMISSIONS

After an all-night negotiating session, European Union leaders agreed Friday morning to cut net carbon emissions by 55 percent in the next decade from levels measured in 1990, overcoming the concerns of nations still heavily dependent on coal and taking a critical step in the effort to become climate-neutral by 2050.

European leaders, who are keen to position themselves as at the forefront of the global fight against climate change, had failed in October to reach a deal on an even less ambitious target of 40 percent.

But after an agreement on a $2.2 trillion budget Thursday evening — with billions earmarked for member states to spend on the transition to a greener economy — momentum for a consensus environmental policy gathered speed.

Shortly after dawn, Charles Michel, the head of the group of the EU leaders, announced the news on Twitter.

“Europe is the leader in the fight against climate change,” he wrote. “We decided to cut our greenhouse gas emissions of at least 55% by 2030.”

Also Friday, Britain announced that it will end billions of dollars a year in government subsidies for overseas oil, gas and coal projects.

The decision on the new target comes just in time for the United Nations climate summit today, where it will be announced by Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission, the bloc’s executive arm.

Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany said it was “worth losing a night’s sleep” over the climate deal.

“I don’t want to imagine what would have happened if we hadn’t been able to achieve such a result,” she said during a news conference Friday, following the meeting.

Still, the details and language in the agreement were kept vague after many hours of often tense negotiations, leaving it up to the commission to hammer out the specifics.