Lawmakers voted by 413 to 226 in favour of a 90-percent cut in greenhouse gas emissions compared to 1990 levels, with flexibility to use carbon credits bought outside the 27-nation EU to help reach the goal.

The target now requires an ultimate sign-off by EU member states.

In a compromise to address concerns by several countries including Italy, the final text allows for five percent of cuts to be accounted for through carbon credits acquired for projects outside Europe.

Activist groups have accused the bloc of simply sending the climate change campaign offshore.

Further down the road, the EU could, if needed, eventually allow member states to make up a further five percent of their targets via credits from international carbon markets.

Under pressure from Poland and Hungary, the final deal also put back by one year to 2028 an emissions trading system for road transport and heating buildings, with some member states still pushing for a delay past that date.

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 by 2023 had cut emissions by 37 percent compared to 1990 levels.

Despite granting concessions on its 2040 target, the EU still lays claim to global leadership in the climate fight -- and is urging its international partners to step up.

"We are only responsible for six percent of global emissions," the EU's climate chief Wopke Hoekstra said recently.

"The reality is while Europe is one of the leaders on climate action, and it is financing by far the most of climate action abroad, unfortunately solidarity and reciprocity do not always go hand in hand," he said, warning: "That has to change."