“We are the first country to announce that the EU must reduce its CO2 emissions by at least 90 percent by 2040!” minister Lars Aagaard wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter.

“We hope that other EU countries will join us,” he said from the sidelines of the COP28 climate talks in Dubai.

In April, the 27 EU member states committed to cutting planet-heating emissions by 55 percent — compared to 1990 levels — by the end of the decade.

Aagaard called for Denmark’s European neighbours to revise the bloc’s “ambitions upwards beyond 2030,” according to comments cited by the Ritzau news agency.

In June, the European Scientific Advisory Board on Climate Change recommended that the EU adopt a target of reducing emissions 90 to 95 percent by 2040.

Brussels has to communicate its ambitions to reduce emissions at the start of next year.

The minister’s call came as Europe’s climate monitor confirmed on Wednesday that 2023 will be the hottest year on record.

This year has “now had six record-breaking months and two record-breaking seasons,” said Samantha Burgess, deputy head of the EU’s Copernicus Climate Change Service.

“The extraordinary global November temperatures, including two days warmer than 2C above pre-industrial (levels), mean that 2023 is the warmest year in recorded history,” she said.