On Thursday 17 December, the European Environment Ministers of the Member States of the European Union adopted a political agreement (‘general approach’) on the European Commission’s proposal for a regulation to establish a framework for achieving climate neutrality at EU level by 2050, also known as the ‘Climate Act’.
“Today we have taken an important step forward with the proposal for a European climate law”, said German Environment Minister Svenja Schulze, who chaired the meeting of ministers.
Contrary to the partial agreement reached on 23 October (see EUROPE 12588/1), this general approach concerns the entire ‘Climate Act’, including the new EU climate target for 2030 recently agreed by the 27 Heads of State or Government.
At the European Council of 10 and 11 December, the EU-27 decided to move this target from a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions of at least 40% to a net reduction of at least 55% compared to 1990 levels (see EUROPE 12621/1).
EU leaders also agreed to review how to achieve this new objective and to adopt additional guidelines before the Commission presents its proposals in June 2021.
The Slovak and Polish ministers (supported by Hungary, Romania, the Czech Republic, Bulgaria, Lithuania and Malta) asked for this clarification to be included in the text of the draft compromise on the ‘Climate Law’ tabled by the German Presidency of the Council (see EUROPE 12623/5).
In order to reach a compromise between these countries and those which refused any substantial change to the text, the Presidency finally amended its draft compromise. In addition to the reference to the European Council’s decision to raise the 2030 target to at least 55%, the text now indicates that the latter “has also provided initial guidance on its implementation”.
Once amended, the text was then supported by all Member States except Bulgaria, which abstained.
The inter-institutional negotiations (‘trilogues’), which began on 30 November and had hitherto been confined to technical considerations in the absence of an agreement on the 2030 objective (see EUROPE 12614A15), will therefore be able to resume.
The second trilogue will thus take place on Monday 21 December, Ms Schulze has already announced.
Revised NDC
At their meeting, ministers also unanimously approved the proposal to update the Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) of the EU and its member states to include an increase in the 2030 target.
The revised CTS will now be forwarded to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) on Friday 18 December, as required by the Paris Accord.
See the general approach of the Climate Law Council: https://bit.ly/38jdnom (Original version in French by Damien Genicot)