On Monday 4 March, members of the European Parliament’s Committees on Transport and Tourism (TRAN) and Environment, Public Health and Food Safety (ENVI) adopted their negotiating position on the ‘Count Emissions EU’ Regulation, with 58 votes in favour, 19 against and one abstention. This text includes a common methodological approach enabling companies to calculate their greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions (see EUROPE 13326/6).
“New rules will incentivise more transparency of GHG emissions in the transport sector. It will help consumers and businesses to make informed choices when it comes to transport options, therefore accelerating the decarbonisation of the sector”, said co-rapporteur Pascal Canfin (Renew Europe, French) in a press release.
MEPs want the Regulation to apply to data intermediaries, who calculate information on the GHG emissions of transport services and do not only disclose information on these emissions provided by a concerned entity or person.
Similarly, they believe that the Regulation should apply to transport services starting and ending outside the territory of the EU, but stopping within the EU, in order to ensure a level playing field between EU transport entities and transport entities from third countries.
However, they decided not to include infrastructure in the assessment of life-cycle emissions, for reasons of proportionality and in order to limit administrative complexity and implementation costs. They specify that these emissions are generally considered to include ‘well-to-wheel’ GHG emissions and emissions linked to the production, maintenance and disposal of vehicles, as well as to infrastructure, insofar as they are relevant.
“The production and recycling of a vehicle was omitted, therefore the Regulation still gives an unfair advantage to battery electric vehicles produced outside Europe. Without addressing the elephant in the room, the EPP cannot support this Regulation”, commented co-rapporteur Barbara Thaler (EPP, Austrian).
The MEPs are therefore asking the European Commission to present a method for calculating GHG emissions over the entire life cycle of all modes of transport and to suggest the best ways of implementing it, within two years of the text coming into force.
The elected representatives are also asking the Commission to develop a free, public calculation tool, and are suggesting that Member States provide financial incentives for the use of direct measurements of GHG emissions.
The report still has to be adopted by Parliament in plenary session before negotiations with the EU Council can begin. The EU Council adopted its position in December 2023 (see EUROPE 13307/11).
Read the compromise amendments: https://aeur.eu/f/b4j (Original version in French by Anne Damiani)