The Estonian Presidency of the Council and European environment ministers tried everything on Friday 13 October to obtain a partial political agreement (a general approach) on the so-called ‘Lulucf’ regulation establishing calculating rules and commitments from member states to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions in the agriculture and forestry sectors. Nonetheless, as we go to press, talks were still continuing.
During the first negotiating session on the presidency compromise, ministers were also determined to keep the promises they had made to reach an agreement on this dossier before the COP 23.
It is a big challenge because the regulation under examination seeks to take into account the emissions absorptions in sectors covering the use of soils, trees, plants, biomass and wood in an effort to achieve a neutral or positive carbon balance sheet.
The new flexibility takes the form of a compensation mechanism of the equivalent of around 316 million tonnes of CO2 over a 10 year period (10% of carbon sinks as the annual average of the EU over the whole period), which all member states would be to benefit from when their forests are still being used as carbon sinks. This is still dividing the delegations and some of them do not agree that Finland can claim more compensation for its previous deforestation (see EUROPE 11882). A new compromise is expected to be attempted and hopes for reaching agreement have not been abandoned. EUROPE will return to this issue. (Original version in French by Aminata Niang)