As the European Commission prepares to present a proposal for the revision of the EU Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) Directive (2003/87), EUROPE obtained a new draft of the forthcoming proposal on Monday 12 July.
Very similar to the previous draft (see EUROPE 12752/1), this Commission document nevertheless provides some clarifications.
The main change concerns the extension of the current ETS to maritime transport.
While the previous version envisaged that the scheme would apply to emissions from ships within the EU and from international shipping to the EU as well as to emissions occurring at berth in an EU port (from 2023 onwards), the new draft indicates that the ETS would apply to “emissions from intra-EU voyages, half of the emissions from extra-EU voyages, and emissions occurring at berth in an EU port”.
Specifically, for extra-EU voyages, the scheme would cover 50% of the emissions of ships on voyages departing from a port under the jurisdiction of an EU Member State and arriving in a port not under the jurisdiction of a Member State, and 50% of the emissions of ships on voyages departing from a port not under the jurisdiction of a Member State and arriving in a port under the jurisdiction of a Member State.
Another change concerns the use of revenues from the new ETS that the Commission plans to set up to cover emissions from road transport and buildings.
According to the text, part of this revenue should be allocated to the EU budget as own resources. The remainder should be used for climate-related purposes, in particular to support sustainable renovation of low-income households, as foreseen in the previous draft.
The official proposal for the revision of the ETS will be unveiled on 14 July, as part of the presentation of the ‘Fit for 55’ legislative package (see EUROPE 12759/2).
See the new draft: https://bit.ly/2U2WgUn (Original version in French by Damien Genicot)