In a briefing paper published on Tuesday 10 March, the European Environment Agency (EEA) called on Member States to step up their efforts to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in sectors not covered by the European Union's Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS), such as transport, buildings, agriculture and waste management.
Under the EU's 'effort sharing' decision, Member States must meet binding annual targets for reducing greenhouse gas emissions in these sectors for the periods 2013-2020 and 2021-2030.
If achieved, these targets will collectively lead to a reduction of total EU emissions in the sectors covered by around 30% between 2005 and 2030, according to the European Commission.
However, according to the EEA report, which covers the EU-27 and the UK, to achieve this result, the annual rate of emission reductions must almost double from 2018, the year of the GHG emission estimates on which the report is based.
"In particular, the large amount of emission reductions from planned measures in the transport sector need to materialise through concrete actions", the EEA stresses.
While heating and cooling of residential and commercial buildings accounted for about half of the emission reductions from effort-sharing between 2005 and 2018, the transport and agriculture sectors recorded very limited emission reductions during this period. However, these two sectors together cover about half of all emissions from sectors not covered by the ETS.
To consult the EEA document: http://bit.ly/2v96hTB (Original version in French by Damien Genicot)