EU draft report ramps up climate ambitions ahead of COP27

The draft document reportedly says the EU wants "major economies that have not yet done so to revisit or strengthen the targets."

The European Environmental Agency in May said that the EU's overall reduction in 2020 greenhouse gas emissions was 34 percent compared to the base year of 1990.

But it also noted that more needs to be done to meet the EU target of a 55-percent net reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2030.

The warning comes as the EU faces its worst drought in some 500 years, amid heatwaves and wildfires that have left larges swathes of territory parched.

It also comes amid surging energy prices throughout much of the EU as member states grapple to replace Russian gas, following Moscow's invasion of Ukraine in late February.

Germany is firing up dirty coal-powered plants to help cope with the shortfall.

With Gazprom's Nord Stream 1 running at just 20-percent capacity, natural gas now costs around ten times more than it did last year.

In France, futures increased to €900 per megawatt-hour. And power prices for next year in Germany have also increase by 23 percent to an all-time high of €792 a megawatt-hour, reports Bloomberg.

Meanwhile, an estimated €10m of gas that would likely have gone to Germany is being burned off by Russia every day.

The flare is generating large volumes of carbon dioxide. Rystad Energy, a research firm, estimates some 4.34 million cubic metres of gas are being burned by the flare every day, reports the BBC.