The European Parliament’s energy and environment committees voted 61 to 49, with 9 abstentions on Thursday 7 December to approve amendments to the draft governance mechanism on energy and the climate, proposed by the Commission in November 2016 as part of its clean energy package. The progressive forces supported the level of ambition of the two environmentalist rapporteurs from the Greens/EFA Group, Michèle Rivasi (France) and Claude Turmes (Luxembourg).
As amended by the drive of the progressive forces, the draft framework law which seeks to incorporate the Paris international agreement on climate into EU law and to mobilise all players to work for the success of the agreement, sets out a vision for a zero-carbon economy by 2050, by introducing a “carbon budget” in EU law in order to account for the maximum quantity of greenhouse gases that the EU can still emit to be able to limit climate warming to 1.5°C, or 2°C at most.
“This regulation will act as an EU-level safeguard to ensure consistency with the Paris Agreement. For the first time, the 2030 climate objectives (renewable energies and energy efficiency) will have to be aligned with a Union carbon budget and a long-term climate and energy strategy”, Rivasi said.
For the EU to become a zero carbon economy by 2050 by moving towards a highly efficient system based on renewables, its member states will have to draft long-term 30-year energy and climate strategies.
In a further innovation, the report calls for a full, EU-wide strategy on methane, emissions of which from farming, coal mining and oil and gas extraction are not always specifically regulated across the EU.
Secondly, the governance mechanism re-jigged under the influence of the Rivasi-Turmes tandem includes provisions to ensure linear trajectories for the rollout of renewables and energy efficiency and bridge the gap so that the 2030 targets are reached.
The member states will have to draft national integrated energy and climate plans to achieve the EU’s 2030 energy targets. These plans will have to be submitted every five years (by 1 January 2019, then by 1 January 2024) and subsequent plans with more ambitious objectives covering a ten-year period of action every five years after that.
In achieving the targets set in these plans, the member states will cooperate at regional and macro-regional levels. They will be able to engage in macro-regional partnership cooperation on renewable energy projects of Energy Union interest (RPEI), with a significant cross-border impact. The Commission will draw up a list, of projects eligible for EU financial support by 31 December 2020.
To provide security for investors, the amended mechanism also introduces strong corrective measures in case of any delays or shortfalls in implementing the objectives. The Commission will evaluate national plans and will be able to make recommendations or take corrective measures when it deems progress or measures taken to be insufficient.
Thirdly, the governance mechanism seeks to be inclusive, mobilising and coordinating citizens’, cities’ and regions’ efforts to tackle climate change and will help address the issue of energy poverty.
According to the amended text, governments, in their integrated national plans, will assess the number of households in energy poverty and outline existing and planned policies and measures addressing energy poverty, including social policy measures and other relevant national programmes. In cases of significant number of households in energy poverty, national indicative objectives for reducing energy poverty should be included in the plans.
The remodelled framework law on governance will be put to a vote in plenary session on January 2018 to give MEPs a mandate to open negotiations with EU governments.
This will prove to be a major test in the face of the Conservative majority in Parliament. On Thursday, Turmes slammed the negative attitudes of the EPP and ECR groups, stating that they were “undermining efforts in Brussels to achieve a European carbon budget consistent with mitigating climate change by the end of the century”. (Original version in French by Emmanuel Hagry)