Given that with the ‘climate law’, the adoption of the EU’s climate targets will no longer require unanimity among Member States, but simply a qualified majority, this regulation, although imperfect, has real added value, said the Chair of the European Parliament’s Environment Committee (ENVI), Pascal Canfin (Renew Europe, France), in an exchange with journalists on Tuesday 3 March.
Leaked to the press (see EUROPE 12437/3), the ‘climate law’, which will be officially presented on Wednesday 4 March, takes the form of a proposal for a regulation which aims primarily to make the EU’s objective of achieving climate neutrality by 2050 binding.
However, this document also contains provisions on the setting of intermediate objectives, in particular for 2030.
However, while the objective of climate neutrality by 2050 has been agreed by the Member States (with the exception of Poland, which has not opposed it - see EUROPE 12389/1), it is not at all certain that the Commission’s desire to raise the climate target set for 2030 will meet with such success.
Currently, the setting of EU climate targets, which takes place every 10 years, requires unanimous agreement of the Member States in the EU Council. Therefore, a single Member State can oppose a possible increase in the EU’s climate ambitions.
The ‘climate law’, on the other hand, will be subject to the classic co-decision procedure. Thus, a simple qualified majority of Member States is required to approve it and, by extension, to endorse the EU climate objectives it contains.
The use of delegated acts. While providing for a change of pace in the setting of targets (every 5 years instead of 10), the ‘climate law’ also proposes that the Commission may adopt delegated acts.
These would be intended to complement the Regulation “by setting out a trajectory at Union level to achieve the climate-neutrality objective”. This trajectory should only begin with the EU’s climate target for 2030, the text further states.
In other words, the Commission could revise the EU’s post-2030 climate targets through delegated acts, which would constitute a real strengthening of the institution’s power in this area.
Such acts enter into force automatically, unless Parliament or the EU Council opposes them within 2 months of notification of the act.
Therefore, in order to oppose the adoption of a certain climate target proposed by the Commission for 2035, 2040 or 2045, an ‘enhanced qualified majority’ in the EU Council would have to speak against the delegated act (at least 72% of the Member States comprising at least 65% of the population of the Union).
This provision of the ‘climate law’ is therefore likely to meet with opposition from the EU Council. “I imagine this is a total red line for the Member States”, Canfin told the press.
Uncertainty around the 2030 target. Regarding the EU’s target for reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 2030, the ‘climate law’ foresees that by September 2020, the Commission will have to review the current -40% target and explore the possibilities for a new target to reduce emissions by 50-55% (compared to 1990).
In fact, the Commission wishes to await the results of its impact assessment currently underway on the feasibility of a 50-55% reduction in emissions before revising the 2030 target.
However, with the publication of this study expected by September this year, there are concerns that the EU may not be able to reach a political agreement (between the EU Council and Parliament) on raising the 2030 target by COP26.
In a letter sent on Tuesday 3 March to Frans Timmermans, the Commission Vice-President responsible for the Green Deal, twelve Member States (Austria, Denmark, Finland, France, Italy, Latvia, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal, Slovenia, Spain and Sweden) encouraged the Commission to present its assessment “as soon as possible and by June 2020 at the latest, in order to advance discussions in a timely manner”.
This is also Mr Canfin’s wish. If the Commission succeeds in including a 50-55% reduction as a new 2030 target in the ‘climate law’ by June, the co-legislators will then still have enough time to hope for a political agreement on the ‘climate law’ - and thus on the increased 2030 target - before November and the start of COP26 in Glasgow, he said.
Otherwise it will be much more difficult for the EU to show global leadership on climate change at the COP, warn the MEP and the twelve countries that signed the letter.
He also added: “Not being up to the task in Glasgow meeting would be a huge failure for the European Union!”
Avoid making it a “Christmas tree”. Finally, in order for the ‘climate law’ to be adopted before COP26 and thus truly represent “the driving force for the Green Deal”, Mr Canfin reiterated his wish that it should remain “simple”.
Taking up the image of the Christmas tree used by Frans Timmermans (see EUROPE 12413/7), he therefore assured that Renew Europe would oppose any amendment to include sectoral measures. According to him, the sectoral discussions “should be postponed to June 2021” to avoid losing time before the COP.
See the ‘climate law’: http://bit.ly/3amBFx4 and the letter from the twelve Member States: http://bit.ly/2PGLRsn (Original version in French by Damien Genicot)