Brussels, 14/06/2016 (Agence Europe) - NGOs active in the climate field have warned that the EU should make sure that the flexibility allowed in the greenhouse gas emissions reduction sharing efforts does not create loopholes and undermine the 2030 climate goals.
As the bilateral talks are being stepped up between the European Commission and the member states to prepare the legislative proposal expected from the Commission towards the middle of July on burden sharing in sectors not covered by the ETS (agriculture, transport, construction, waste and light industry), Carbon Market Watch, the WWF and Transport & Environment have published a new study illustrating that these loopholes sought by certain member states could mean that “the EU could emit 4.7 billion tonnes more CO2 than it promised to do until 2030”, says Femke de Jong, EU policy director at Carbon Market Watch. This would be in total contradiction with the Paris Agreement climate targets, particularly because the 30% reduction in emissions by 2030, as planned for the non-ETS sector, is not sufficient, argue the NGOs. The non-ETS sector accounts for 60% of total EU emissions. The WWF emphasises that “to align the effort sharing decision with the Paris climate deal, the emission reduction target should be raised to 45%”.
Some of the possible loopholes highlighted in the report (“Effort sharing decision after 2020: “Ensuring that the EU's largest instrument is fit for purpose”) are: - the fact that some countries want to use the Land Use and Land Use Change and Forestry (LULUCF), reputed to be a carbon sink due to forests' ability to absorb CO2 emissions, could be used to undermine their effort in sectors such as agriculture and transport; - the fact that the 2020 targets are taken as a starting point for calculating future emissions reductions could lead to an increase in the EU's carbon budget by 750 million t in equivalent CO2 emissions for the 2021-2030 period; - the use of excess quotas in the emissions trading scheme to enable up to 300 million t of additional CO2 emissions in sectors that are not covered by the scheme; - the transfer of carbon quotas and international credits that are not thus far used up could lead to an additional 2.25 billion t equivalent CO2 and a decision on effort sharing. The NGOs' report was presented to MEPs on 2 June. (Original version in French by Aminata Niang)