Brussels, 27/06/2016 (Agence Europe) - Using forests' ability to absorb CO2 to offset greenhouse gas emissions from transport or construction would be counter-productive, warned the NGO Fern “Making the EU work for people and forests” on 22 June.
For this reason, it is awaiting with great trepidation the proposal that the European Commission is due to set out on 20 July on the contribution that agriculture and forestry can make to tacking climate change, a key part of its climate summer legislative package. The LULUCF (Land Use, Land-Use Change and Forestry) proposal will be brought forward at the same time as a proposal on effort sharing in sectors not covered by the emissions trading scheme (ETS) - agriculture, transport, buildings, waste and light industry - and a communication on decarbonising transport (see EUROPE 11578).
The announcement made by European Climate Action Commissioner Miguel Arias Canete of Commission plans to allow the LULUCF sector to return carbon credits to the other non-ETS sectors does nothing to reassure them (see EUROPE 11577).
FERN warns of the danger of the Commission's deciding that forest restoration and creation could be used to offset rather than reduce fossil fuel emissions. If the LULUCF sector has its own target, as the commissioner promises, and if accounting rules are improved, the EU could penalise deforestation, encourage restoration of forests and wetlands and encourage the material use of wood over burning it. This is an opportunity not to be missed, in FERN's view.
“The EU must not cave into industry demands to be able to cheaply offset their emissions”, warns the NGO, stating that every tonne of LULUCF credits used to offset emissions in other sectors leads to an extra tonne of emissions in the atmosphere. “The introduction of 100 million LULUCF credits could mean 50 million homes go uninsulated, or car standards are allowed to stay as low as they are today”, FERN says.
Keenly aware that this is a potential pitfall that could prove fatal to the EU's climate targets for 2030 and those of the Paris Agreement, a group of environmental NGOs said recently that, among the loopholes to be avoided in the effort sharing for non-ETS sectors, was the desire by some countries to use the LULUCF sector, regarded as a “carbon sink” because of forests' ability to absorb CO2, to cut back their effort in sectors such as agriculture and transport (see EUROPE 11572). (Original version in French by Aminata Niang)