By adopting by a very large majority (210 votes in favour, 2 against and 9 abstentions) on Thursday 16 July the draft opinion by Jan Dirx (Netherlands) on the European Commission’s proposal for a Climate Law (see EUROPE 12439/2), the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) stated its support for raising the European target for reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions to at least 55% by 2030.
However, the opinion adds that, according to the United Nations Environment Programme’s 2019 Emissions Gap Report, “an even more ambitious 2030 emission reduction target is needed globally to achieve the 1.5°C target set in the Paris Agreement”.
In this respect, the rapporteur for the European Parliament, Jytte Guteland (S&D, Sweden), defends a target of at least 65% (see EUROPE 12483/11), a proposal that is far from unanimous within the European Parliament (see EUROPE 12495/21).
In contrast to Mrs Guteland, the EESC also supports the Commission’s approach of applying the 2050 climate neutrality target to the EU as a whole and not to individual Member States.
According to the EESC, “this approach has the advantage that an optimal distribution of efforts can be accomplished EU-wide, taking into account relevant differences among Member States”.
However, the Committee believes that each State should be required to indicate in its National Energy and Climate Plan (NECP) whether it intends to achieve climate neutrality, when and what kind of measures it plans to take to achieve an optimal result at EU level.
Finally, the EESC proposes to create a platform of stakeholders of the European Climate Pact to organise and facilitate their active participation in the climate discussions.
To consult the opinion: https://bit.ly/3eTmRHW (Original version in French by Damien Genicot)