In Luxembourg on Friday 13 October, the European Environment Council reached agreement in principle (a ‘general approach’) on the July 2016 draft regulation establishing a sharing of the burden of reducing greenhouse gas emissions among member states not covered by the European carbon trading system (ETS) for 2030 (see EUROPE 11598).
This covers transport, buildings, agriculture and waste, sectors that should cut their emissions by 30% over the 2021-2030 period on the 2005 figures as a contribution to the EU’s climate objective of cutting greenhouse gas emissions by at least 40% by 2030 on the 1990 level.
With a few minor amendments, the general approach follows the Estonian Presidency’s compromise that was being examined (see EUROPE 11875). The approach will allow rapid opening of interinstitutional talks on a major text for implementation of the Paris Climate Agreement by the EU. The European Parliament gave its opinion of the draft regulation in June (see EUROPE 11814).
The call for political will and a spirit of compromise made by the chair of the Council, Siim Kiisler, to help the EU agree and send a strong signal to the rest of the world ahead of COP 23 (6-17 November) was followed and everyone thanked the Estonian Presidency for the huge amount of work it has done.
The final problem to be settled is the security reserve, a new form of flexibility to help EU countries including those with a low income, that made early efforts to cut their greenhouse gas emissions but risk having problems meeting their target for 2030 (see EUROPE 11882).
This was finally resolved by means of an ultimate compromise to the satisfaction of Poland, Spain and Italy.
Security reserve of 115 million tonnes of CO2. The presidency agreed to increase the security reserve to 115 million tonnes of CO2 (from the 100 million in the previous compromise and the initial 70 million tonnes). The reserve will only be able to be used as a last resort after all other room for manoeuvre has been used up, in other words after 2032.
The most ambitious nations, such as Denmark, Belgium, France, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom and Sweden, which warned against any jeopardising of environmental integrity by the regulation, which would damage the EU’s credibility ahead of COP 23, were able to go along with this concession in the spirit of compromise. Hungary, Luxembourg and Romania would have preferred to remain at 70 million tonnes. The Dutch minister slammed this inappropriate horse trading.
Other minor modifications were also made. Article 10 A on additional security reserves for the member states in exceptional circumstances, will now simply be called a ‘security reserve.’
Malta was able to win a slight adjustment to Annex IV on an adjustment to its annual quota allocation, but feels this has not gone far enough because it is the smallest issuing country in terms of inhabitants. It says that despite all its efforts, its objectives are the most difficult to achieve for 2021-30. The minister says it voted for the text against its will and has lodged a statement in the minutes of the meeting. Countries like Slovenia, Lithuania, the Czech Republic that wanted a more ambitious starting point for the emission reduction trajectory did not win their cause, but the meeting chair, Siim Kissler, wanted to reassure them that it would be the main element to be worked upon to achieve an agreement with the European Parliament.
Denmark, fearing lack of ambition, and a number of countries with large forests, such as Finland and Austria, wanted to know what balance the Co8ci would strike on the separate draft Lulucf regulation on the absorption of emissions by agriculture and forestry before deciding on the final compromise, but Siim Kiisler reassured Finland and felt that the general approach was adopted. Talk about the Lulucf regulation was much briefer.
Climate Action and Energy Commissioner Miguel Arias Cañete said at the start that he would back any compromise that did not impact on the regulation’s environmental integrity on the sharing of efforts. He said the agreement reached gave a reasonable volume for the security reserve and was acceptable.
French ecology transition minister Nicolas Hulot said the world was watching and the only danger would be signs of division or a small sign of easing up on ambition. He said they had to maintain their credibility out of respect for Fiji, which will chair COP23. The general approach is a good signal in terms of form, but NGO CAN Europe is critical of its content. (Original version in French by Aminata Niang)