In voting on Wednesday 14 June on the draft regulation on the sharing of effort among the member states in reducing greenhouse gas emissions from 2021 to 2030 in sectors not covered by the ETS – transport, agriculture, buildings and waste – the European Parliament marginally toughened the initial European Commission proposal, much to the satisfaction of rapporteur Gerben-Jan Gerbrandy (ALDE, Netherlands).
However, unsurprisingly, Parliament was less ambitious than its environment committee. All the amendments, joint EPP-ECR and ALDE, were adopted, as the plenary session debate on Tuesday 13 June had suggested (see EUROPE 11807).
On the basis of the amended text, Parliament approved the negotiating mandate for the interinstitutional talks to try to come to an agreement at first reading on the regulation that seeks to cut emissions from non-ETS sectors by 30% by 2030, compared with 2005 levels. The challenge is great since these sectors currently contribute 60% of the EU’s total greenhouse gas emissions and will have to help the EU achieve its target under the Paris climate agreement of reducing its emissions by at least 40% compared with 1990 levels between now and 2030.
The amended text takes 2018 as the reference year for member states’ emissions reduction trajectory (based on average emissions, 2016-2017) rather than 2020 as the Commission had proposed. Climate activists approve this change.
Parliament restored the Lulucf flexibility to 280 million tonnes of CO2 as proposed by the Commission, allowing forestry credits to be used to achieve national targets (the environment committee capped flexibility at 190 million tonnes).
The early action reserve advocated by the environment committee to encourage the countries of Eastern Europe, whose per capita GDP is lower than the Community average, has been increased to 90 million tonnes of CO2, rather than 70 million.
The text mentions the EU’s long-term climate target (reducing emissions by 80% by 2050) and, in so doing, reiterates the conclusions of the 2009 European Council.
Not enough of an improvement for NGOs. Even though agreeing that the text is better than the Commission’s initial proposal, for instance, with a starting point that better reflects actual emissions in 2020 and avoiding rewarding the countries that are currently underachieving, climate NGOs are disappointed. They say that the text brings in new flexibilities. Carbon Market Watch is critical of the creation of an early action reserve which “is just hot air and could widen the differences in per capita emissions in Europe”. It is unhappy, too, that Parliament has not closed the loophole that allows 280 million tonnes of forestry credits to be used to offset agricultural emissions.
All say they are counting on the Council of the EU to redress the balance, aligning with the Paris climate agreement objectives. The Environment Council will hold a discussion on this issue when it meets in Luxembourg on 19 June. (Original version in French by Aminata Niang)