During a discussion in the European Parliament’s Environment Committee (ENVI) on Tuesday 28 January on a study published in the journal Science on climate policies that have achieved major reductions in greenhouse gas emissions, the European Scientific Advisory Board on Climate Change called for no let-up on the ‘ETS 2’ Emissions Trading System for the heating of buildings and road transport sectors (see EUROPE 13087/4).
“ETS 2 is under increasing pressure at the moment. Some are concerned about the social repercussions. (...) These effects need to be analysed. However, if we make ETS 2 more flexible, we will not achieve our climate targets”, said the Vice-Chair of the Scientific Advisory Board, Jette Bredahl Jacobsen.
At a plenary session in Strasbourg on 22 January, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk warned against rash implementation of ETS 2 (see EUROPE 13563/1).
However, “if we maintain the ETS while funding complementary measures to reduce the negative effects, we could find a solution for the future”, said Mrs Bredahl Jacobsen.
The Scientific Advisory Board was invited to comment as part of this study, which analysed 1,500 climate policies around the world over the last 25 years and identified 63 “successful” cases (which have led to a reduction in emissions of at least 5 to 10%).
The study underlines that pricing instruments, combined with other measures, can achieve a significant reduction in emissions. This combination of policies is particularly useful in sectors with private consumers, such as transport.
“Over the last 20 years, I have noticed that price instruments are still rarely used (...) compared with other instruments. In the cases where we do use them - either on their own or in combination with other measures - we see these success cases”, explained one of the authors of the study, Nicolas Koch, Head of the policy evaluation laboratory at the Mercator Research Institute on Global Commons and Climate Change in Berlin.
He also believes it is necessary to have “a strong European political framework for ETS 1 and ETS 2”.
While several MEPs on the right of the Chamber questioned the effectiveness of climate policies, such as those analysed in the study, in preserving European competitiveness, Mr Koch pointed out that there was “quite simply no evidence of negative effects on competitiveness and no empirical evidence of any carbon leakage”.
He added that these results were also due to the development of compensation policies, such as “the allocation of free allowances in Emissions Trading Systems, the reflection on the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM), etc.”.
During the exchange, the European Commission added that the existence of the Social Climate Fund in the context of ETS 2 was “very important, insofar as the Member States will design plans to reflect (socio-economic) needs and use the revenue to deal with different situations (...)”.
To see the study: https://aeur.eu/f/f9i (Original version in French by Pauline Denys)