On Tuesday 12 October, all the coordinators from the main political groups (EPP, S&D, ALDE, ECR and the Greens) at the European Parliament’s environment committee congratulated European Commissioner for Transport Violeta Bulc on “the work accomplished” in Montreal.
Bulc addressed the committee by defending the agreement reached at the ICAO on 7 October on a global market-based measure (GMBM) to limit emissions from international aviation transport and to achieve carbon neutral growth by 2020 (see EUROPE 11641). She will travel to Luxembourg on Monday 17 October to make a similar address to the Council of the EU.
Undoubtedly, none of the MEPs thought this agreement was as ambitious as the Parliament had been hoping for, but the coordinators as a whole said that this first-ever global agreement in the international aviation transport sector to tackle climate change constituted “a starting point by providing indispensable foundations for the required improvement of the system over time”. Those who were most vociferous in their criticism before the agreement had obviously toned things down. The ALDE Group is the only one to have reserved its point of view until later.
The chairperson of the parliamentary committee, Giovanni La Via (EPP, Italy), pointed out that the assessment of this agreement would be crucial for the future pending European pending on the European Emissions Trading Scheme (the Stop the Clock Regulation), which excludes intercontinental flights from the ETS until the end of 2016.
Peter Liese (EPP, Germany), the rapporteur on Stop the Clock Regulation, called for European aviation to be kept within the ETS and stated: “We are in the middle of getting rid of the ETS. This is not a good solution, We have to continue work with other options to keep the ETS in Europe and, possibly, develop it so that a compromise is reached between the ETS directive and the Stop the Clock principle.”
On this point, Bulc announced that the Commission would evaluate “all the possible options and take a decision on the ETS in 2017. We are preparing a detailed report with Commissioner Cañete. At the beginning of 2017 we will return to examine the situation again. The impact study will also be ready at the beginning of 2017 and we will be able to discuss the different options”. “I can now tell you that the control, verification and reporting mechanism on emissions will remain in application”, she added.
In reply to questions from MEPs who are concerned by China’s reluctance to make a commitment to the carbon neutral growth target, Bulc said that she would be meeting the Chinese in Brussels next week and that she expected that they would fully participate.
All the MEPs said that offsetting emissions was not the same as reducing them, and expressed concern about the absence of binding measures before 2027, as well as the uncertainty regarding the participation of all the different countries after this date. Bulc provided assurances that she would not let things slip on this question. She recognised, as did Julie Girling (ECR, United Kingdom) and Bas Eickhout (Greens/EFA, Netherlands), that the ICAO lacked transparency, but had made a commitment to address MEPs regularly and provide an update on the technical operational measures still to be negotiated in order to give the agreement some substance. (Original version in French by Aminata Niang)