The European Commission’s Executive Vice-President responsible for the European Green Deal, Frans Timmermans, stressed the importance of European soils and forests as natural carbon sinks to achieve a reduction of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions of at least 55% by 2030 (compared to 1990 levels) on Monday 28 September in a debate with members of the European Parliament’s Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety (ENVI).
In response to concerns expressed by some MEPs that the Commission is promoting offsetting of emissions rather than real emission reductions, the Vice-President assured that the inclusion of CO2 emissions and removals from land use, land-use change and forestry (Regulation 2018/841, known as the LULUCF Regulation) does not constitute an “accounting trick” aimed at artificially inflating the new 2030 target recently proposed by the institution (see EUROPE 12561/5).
According to him, this is nothing new, as the current 2030 target (an emission reduction of at least 40%) already takes into account these carbon sinks “as much as it is used by Member States in the context of the Effort Sharing Regulation [Regulation 2018/842]”.
“We have assumed 225 million tonnes of removals by 2030”, he went on to say in response to a question from Jytte Guteland (S&D, Sweden).
Questioned on this subject by EUROPE, the Commission nevertheless indicated that, contrary to what was done to calculate the new 2030 objective (see EUROPE 12562/1), GHG emissions and absorptions linked to LULUCF were not taken into account in their entirety until now.
-55%, an “achievable” target
During his opening address, Mr Timmermans insisted on the feasibility of reducing EU emissions by at least 55% by 2030.
In his view, the Commission’s impact assessment unveiled on 17 September (see EUROPE 12562/1) shows that such a reduction represents “the smoothest pathway to climate neutrality”, as it provides “certainty to investors” and a “clear timeframe” to those sectors where the transition will take time.
He admitted, however, that he was aware that “[this] is too much for some and too little for others”, while the ENVI Committee advocates a 60% reduction (see EUROPE 12557/1).
Review of ETS
In order to achieve this new target proposed by the Commission, the Vice-President stressed the importance of revising the ETS, including emissions from shipping, buildings and road transport, as well as other initiatives such as the ‘renovation wave’ and the tightening of CO2 standards for cars and vans for 2030 and beyond.
Turning to the revision of the ETS, Ms Guteland called on the Dutch to ensure that the mechanism covers all emissions from maritime transport, as reported under the EU system for monitoring, reporting and verification of CO2 emissions from the maritime sector (Regulation 2015/757, known as the MRV Regulation) and not just intra-EU emissions.
Indeed, the Commission’s climate target plan for 2030 states that the Commission plans to extend the ETS to “intra-community” maritime transport.
“We follow the science”
Questioned by several parliamentarians on the lack of analysis of the feasibility of a target higher than -55% in the institution’s impact study, Mr Timmermans estimated that a reduction of at least 55% “is consistent” with the objective of limiting global warming to +1.5°C.
“We follow the science”, he told Michael Bloss (Greens/EFA, Germany).
However, he did not answer a question from Nils Torvalds (Renew Europe, Finland) and Jutta Paulus (Greens/EFA, Germany) on his position on the establishment of an EU budget for greenhouse gases (a proposal supported by the ENVI Committee).
Finally, on the international side, the Vice-President again welcomed the recent commitment of the Chinese President, Xi Jinping, to achieve climate neutrality by 2060 (see EUROPE 12566/4). (Original version in French by Damien Genicot)