EU environment ministers Tuesday launched a last-ditch bid to reassert the bloc's climate ambitions by nailing down key emissions targets in the run-up to the UN's COP30 summit in Brazil.

The European Union's member states have been haggling for months over two separate targets for slashing greenhouse-gas emissions: one for 2035 they must bring to the UN climate talks, and the other for 2040.

"This is a crucial day," French Environment Minister Monique Barbut told reporters as the final negotiations began in Brussels -- warning that turning up empty-handed at the November 10-20 talks in Belem would spell "disaster" for the EU.

Behind only China, the United States and India in terms of emissions, the EU has been the most committed of the major polluters to climate action and has already

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