On Wednesday 23 September, the German Presidency of the Council of the European Union sent the Member States a second draft compromise on the proposal for a European regulation, known as the ‘climate law’, which aims to incorporate the objective of climate neutrality by 2050 into EU legislation and establish a path towards this goal (see EUROPE 12439/2).
Obtained by EUROPE, this text contains very few changes compared to the first draft compromise (see EUROPE 12551/1).
However, it is worth mentioning that the German Presidency suggests aligning the publication of reports under the ‘climate law’ (assessing in particular the EU’s progress towards its climate and energy objectives) with that of reports under the Regulation on the Governance of the Union for Energy and Climate Action (2018/1999).
Under this proposal, every five years from 2023, these reports would be published together by 30 September to ensure that the EU has sufficient time to prepare for the global review under the Paris Agreement (which takes place every five years) and to ensure coherence between the ‘climate law’ and the governance regulation.
Concerning the EU’s 2030 greenhouse gas emission reduction target, the draft compromise simply sets out the amendments proposed by the Commission (for a reduction of at least 55% – see EUROPE 12562/1), specifying that “that these amendments are not part of the Presidency compromise text but merely reflect the Commission’s amended proposal”.
This new draft compromise and the Commission’s amendments relating to the 2030 objective will be analysed by Member States’ experts in the Working Party on the Environment on 29 September.
On the European Parliament’s side, the plenary vote on the report by Jytte Guteland (S&D, Sweden), which calls for a 60% reduction in emissions by 2030, is scheduled for 6 October.
See the draft compromise: https://bit.ly/3mKMksi (Original version in French by Damien Genicot)