In his draft report on the revision of the EU Regulation (2018/84) on land use, land-use change and forestry (LULUCF) published on Tuesday 4 January, MEP Ville Niinistö (Greens/EFA, Finland) proposes that the EU should set a target of -490 million tonnes of CO2 equivalent in net carbon removals by 2030.
This is a significant increase on the European Commission’s revision proposal of -310 million tonnes of CO2 equivalent (see EUROPE 12762/4).
In order to achieve this level of carbon removal by forests and land, the rapporteur logically suggests increasing the shares assigned to Member States, while insisting that the increase in natural carbon sinks “should be done in a way that preserve and enhance biodiversity”.
Member States that fail to meet their annual targets for two consecutive years would be required to revise their National Energy and Climate Plans (NECP) and long-term strategies to ensure that additional measures are taken to strengthen all natural sinks and reservoirs.
The draft report also states that the increase in net greenhouse gas (GHG) removals by forests and land “should be pursued in a separate framework, and should not in any case be used to offset GHG emissions from the fossil industry, including from the agricultural sector”.
The MEP explains this approach by pointing out that “climate science shows that (...) one tonne of GHG emitted to the atmosphere cannot be compared to one tonne of GHG removed”.
Regarding post-2030 LULUCF targets for the sector, he believes that these should be set “in due time”, taking into account the opinion of the ‘European Scientific Advisory Board on Climate Change’ and the EU greenhouse gas emissions budget, which is expected to be presented by the Commission by mid-2024 (both new developments from the ‘Climate Law’ - see EUROPE 12748/11).
According to Mr Niinistö, several measures can help the EU achieve -490 million tonnes of net carbon removals. His draft report mentions, among other things, setting national targets to ensure that croplands, grasslands and wetlands progressively become a source of net GHG removal at EU level, introducing more sustainable forest management methods, ending deforestation in the EU, adopting a more climate-friendly diet, and mobilising additional public revenues to support farmers and forest managers.
With regard to the latter point, the rapporteur wishes to oblige Member States to devote at least 5% of the revenue generated by the auctioning of emission allowances under the EU carbon market (ETS) to programmes supporting the scaling up of ecosystem-based approaches in forests and agricultural land.
Furthermore, he opposes the Commission’s proposal to integrate non-CO2 emissions from agriculture in the scope of the Regulation.
“By doing so a risk of hiding emissions from the agricultural sector behind forest sink would be established, without incentives for the agricultural sector to decrease emissions”, the draft report states.
See the draft report: https://bit.ly/3FZd1mk (Original version in French by Damien Genicot)