According to information gathered by EUROPE on Tuesday 3 January, MEP Lídia Pereira (EPP, Portuguese) has been appointed as the European Parliament’s rapporteur for the proposed regulation to establish a voluntary framework for the certification of carbon removals in the European Union.
Presented on 30 November, the European Commission’s proposal for a regulation sets out rules for third-party verification and certification of carbon removals in the EU - whether achieved through industrial carbon capture and storage (CCS) technologies, ‘carbon farming’ or sustainable materials such as wood-based construction products - as well as requirements defining the certification schemes that can be used to demonstrate compliance with the EU framework.
However, the text provides little detail at this stage. The Commission intends to complement it in the future by adopting delegated acts establishing certification methods for different types of carbon absorption activities.
This approach has raised many questions among stakeholders, with NGOs in particular criticising the lack of clarity in the current text (see EUROPE 13075/13).
Negotiations are already underway in the EU Council
In the EU Council, the Member States have already begun work on this text, notably with an initial debate between the 27 environment ministers on 20 December.
However, while they generally welcomed the Commission’s proposal, several countries raised issues.
“Important questions have not been answered sufficiently, such as the permanence of removals, storage, the use of the certificate, double counting and possible disincentives”, said German State Secretary Christiane Rohleder, echoing comments by Lithuanian Deputy Minister Raminta Radavičienė.
Polish Undersecretary of State Adam Guibourgé-Czetwertyński expressed surprise that the Commission had chosen to detail the certification methods in later delegated acts when this is “the essence of the proposal”.
On behalf of Greece, Minister Konstantinos Skrekas argued for the inclusion of carbon sequestration on third country sites in the regulation.
“The framework must be simple and inexpensive, to facilitate its deployment, while being rigorous”, said French Secretary of State Bérangère Couillard.
See the proposal for a regulation: https://aeur.eu/f/4d6 (Original version in French by Damien Genicot)