The report by Swedish MEP Jytte Guteland (S&D, Sweden) on the ‘climate law’, which is due to be put to the vote in the European Parliament plenary session on 6 October, calls for a ‘European Climate Change Council’ (ECCC) to be set up by 30 June 2022.
While this proposal was widely supported (61 votes in favour of the amendment, 17 against and 3 abstentions) when the report was adopted by the Parliament’s Committee on the Environment (ENVI) (see EUROPE 12557/1), some MEPs had nevertheless questioned the usefulness of such a body, fearing in particular that it would duplicate existing organisations such as the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) or the European Environment Agency (EEA) (see EUROPE 12495/21).
An advisory body
According to Ms Guteland’s report, the ECCC would be “a permanent, independent, inter-disciplinary scientific advisory panel” which would provide the EU institutions with annual “assessments of the consistency of the Union measures to reduce greenhouse gas emissions with the Union’s climate objectives and its international climate commitments”.
The group would also have the task of assessing actions and pathways to reduce greenhouse gas emissions as well as “consequences of inaction or insufficient action”.
To this end, Parliament proposes that the ECCC include: (1) a Scientific Committee, composed of a maximum of 15 experts, responsible, in full independence, for preparing scientific opinions; (2) a secretariat provided by the EEA, in order to avoid duplication of work between the bodies; (3) a Management Board, appointed by the Parliament and the Council of the EU by common accord, on the basis of a proposal from the Commission, and responsible for the establishment and monitoring of the activities of the ECCC.
The Management Board would include one member from each national climate advisory body notified to the Commission by the Member States, two representatives chosen by the Commission, two representatives chosen by the Parliament and the Chair of the Secretariat (appointed by the EEA).
All members of the ECCC would be appointed for a five-year term, renewable once, the report further states.
Added value
Regarding the risks of duplication, the report stresses that the ECCC’s missions “must avoid overlap with the IPCC’s mission at international level”.
According to Michael Bloss (Greens/EFA, Germany), there is a major difference with the IPCC, whose role is to compile and assess the best scientific data available worldwide.
The ECCC would help to integrate this scientific data into EU policy making, through an EU budget for greenhouse gases and by verifying the compatibility of European climate policies with our commitments to the global community, Mr Bloss told us.
He added, “This is what is missing to bring the voice of science into European politics and this is something the IPCC cannot do”.
The ECCC group is reportedly inspired in this respect by the British Committee on Climate Change (CCC) set up in 2008.
However, according to a joint study by the Centre for Climate Change Economics and Policy and the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment (https://bit.ly/3cudlM1 ), the CCC “has changed the way climate policy is conducted” in the United Kingdom, thanks in particular to its articulation with the British Parliament, the fact that the government is obliged to justify its position when it does not follow a CCC recommendation, and its significant financial resources (which have since been reduced).
While sharing these conclusions, a report (https://bit.ly/3cuk6x8 ) by the think tank of the Institute for Sustainable Development and International Relations (IDDRI) furthermore underlines that “the utility and the need to maintain the CCC [...] were unreservedly confirmed in the first public evaluation of the institution, carried out in 2014 by its supervising ministry”. (Original version in French by Damien Genicot)