At Monday 8 June’s meeting of the Transport, Telecommunications and Energy Council in Luxembourg (see other news), the transport ministers of the European Union Member States held an in camera exchange on the future post-2030 policy framework for transport decarbonisation and reached a political agreement in principle.
Decarbonisation efforts in the transport sector beyond 2030 include the ReFuelEU Regulation, for the development of sustainable fuels in the aviation sector, the FuelEU Regulation for reducing CO2 emissions in maritime transport, as well as revisions to the AFIR Regulation on alternative fuels infrastructure, by the end of 2026.
At the end of the ministerial meeting, Cyprus’ Minister of Transport, Communications and Works, Alexis Vafiadis, said: “Emissions in the transport sector, which account for around one third of the EU’s total CO2 emissions, have continued to rise in recent decades”.
An agreement in principle to feed into the Commission’s work. To achieve the EU’s climate neutrality objective by 2050 and a 90% reduction in emissions by 2040, the minister stressed the importance of “deploying clean technologies, developing enabling infrastructure and the role of renewable and alternative fuels across all transport modes”.
The EU Council therefore agreed on a political agreement in principle, according to the minister, so that this could provide “valuable policy guidance to the Commission as it prepares the legislative package for the 2040 targets”.
“Climate neutrality, supply chain security and resilience are horizontal priorities for the European Union”, he reiterated. (Original version in French by Nadège Delépine)