<div><span style="font-size: 1rem;"><b>The European Union vowed at UN climate talks on Tuesday that it will strengthen its carbon-cutting commitment, insisting that the bloc was not "backtracking" in the face of the Ukraine war.</b></span><br></div><div><br></div><div>Armed with new plans to curb greenhouse gases, the EU says it will be able to exceed its original plan to cut emissions by 55 percent by 2030 with a new goal of over 57 percent, from 1990 levels.</div><div><br></div><div>"The European Union is here to move forwards, not backwards," European Commission Vice President Frans Timmermans told delegates in the Egyptian seaside resort of Sharm el-Sheikh.</div><div><br></div><div>He denied the bloc was in a "dash for gas" in response to the invasion of Ukraine by fossil fuel exporter Russia.</div><div><br></div><div>"So don't let anybody tell you here or outside that the EU is backtracking," he said.</div><div><br></div><div>Campaigners said the EU announcement did not go far enough.</div><div><br></div><div>"This small increase announced today at COP27 doesn't do justice to the calls from the most vulnerable countries at the front lines," said Chiara Martinelli, of Climate Action Network Europe.</div><div><br></div><div>"If the EU, with a heavy history of emitting greenhouse gases, doesn't lead on mitigating climate change, who will?"</div><div><br></div><div>In October, the European Environment Agency warned that Europe was not on track to meet that target, after greenhouse gas emissions rebounded in 2021 due to the post-pandemic recovery. - AFP&nbsp;</div><div><br></div><div>bnbd24/fas</div><div><br></div>