BRUSSELS — The European Commission on Wednesday unveiled legislation to reduce the EU’s carbon footprint by up to 90 percent by 2040, a softer target than initially planned.

The EU executive, following the recommendations of its scientific advisors, suggested this figure more than a year ago — envisaging a hard target that, like the bloc’s existing 2030 and 2050 goals, would have to be reached solely through efforts within the EU.

But the 2040 emissions-cutting target has faced significant pushback from governments, prompting the Commission to grant them unprecedented leeway to meet the goal.

That includes allowing a portion of the target to be met through international carbon credits, a controversial mechanism that outsources part of the bloc’s climate efforts to developing countries.

Effectively, EU governments would be able to fund climate projects in other countries and count the resulting emissions reduction toward their own targets. Critics, including the bloc’s scientific advisors, warn that this risks undermining the EU’s domestic decarbonization efforts.

As POLITICO reported earlier this week, the Commission proposes setting strict limits on credits, making their use conditional on a proper impact assessment, requiring funded projects to deliver meaningful emissions reductions and suggesting excluding them from the bloc’s carbon market.

The EU executive also wants a maximum of 3 percentage points of the target to be met through credits, aligning with Germany’s position on the issue.

The proposal also gives countries two more concessions to make meeting the target easier. One, integrating CO2 removals into the bloc’s carbon market, which would ease the pressure on energy-intensive industries. And two, greater flexibility between countries’ CO2 absorption targets and emissions-reduction targets.