On December 15, the European
Parliament’s Environment Committee gave a boost to plans to increase
greenhouse-gas emission curbs through the EU carbon market (EU ETS).
MEPs propose reducing the
carbon credits to be auctioned by 2.4% each year, and doubling the capacity of
the market stability reserve (MSR) to absorb the excess of allowances on the
market.
“After the Commission
proposal, and 650 amendments tabled, today the Environment Committee has
delivered a strong signal to the Council,” said Italian MEP
Giovanni La
Via, who is the chair of the environment committee. “I think that this
was an ambitious yet balanced vote. We really need to implement the Paris
agreement and meet our climate targets, without endangering the competitiveness
of our industries”, he added.
“Today the Environment
Committee delivered a welcome Christmas gift to all who care about climate
change”, said rapporteur
Ian Duncan from the UK. “We have
endorsed an agreement that honours our Paris commitments, while also protecting
our vital industries. The journey has not always been easy but the commitment
of my fellow MEPs who negotiated the dossier has been unstinting and I owe them
all a debt of thanks”, Duncan continued.
“Our next step in February
to secure endorsement by the entire Parliament will be a challenge but after
today’s vote I have greater confidence in the outcome. Time now for the Council
to step up to the plate and get ready to bat for climate change” he added.
In their amendments, MEPs
advocate increasing the so-called “linear reduction factor” – the yearly
reduction of credits, in order to deliver on the carbon curbs – by 2.4%, as
against the 2.2% proposed by the European Commission.
MEPs also want to reinforce
the MSR’s capacity to mop up the excess of credits on the market. When
triggered from 2019, it would absorb up to 24% of the excess of credits in each
auctioning year, for the first four years – double its current capacity. MEPs
also agreed that 800 million allowances should be removed from the MSR as of
January 1, 2021.
MEPs say that, in the
absence of a comparable system operating under the International Maritime
Organisation (IMO), CO2 emissions in EU ports and during voyages to and from
them should be accounted for. They propose setting up a fund to compensate for
maritime emissions, improve energy efficiency, facilitate investments in
innovative technologies and reduce CO2 emissions from the sector. Revenues from
auctioning of allowances in the aviation sector would be used for climate
action in the EU and third countries.
The legislation will be put
to a vote by the full House in February. Parliament, Council and the Commission
will then start the so-called “trilogue” three-way negotiations.
WWF welcomed steps towards
tackling the oversupply of emission allowances, which would lead to a total
surplus of more than 2 billion allowances by 2020.
“Meaningful reforms to fix
the EU ETS have been long overdue, and we are finally on the right track,” said
Sam Van den plas, climate policy officer at WWF European
Policy Office.
Imke Lübbeke
, Head of Climate and Energy at WWF
European Policy Office, said that using the ETS auctioning revenues to deliver
more clean investments in Europe is the right way forward. “However, there is
still a lot of room for improvement ahead of the EP plenary vote and in the
negotiations with Member States, especially concerning the EU’s international
climate finance commitments. Policymakers need to re-focus on the big picture
now, and shift the debate away from the vested interests of a handful of large
polluting sectors to using the ETS to deliver on the Paris climate
commitments,” Lübbeke added.
CAN Europe also welcomed
the steps the Parliament took to scale up emission cuts, beyond what the
European Commission has proposed, but stressed that these are still far too little
to repair the broken scheme or align the EU’s planned emission reductions with
the global temperature goals it committed to under the Paris Agreement.
“The lawmakers have clearly
recognized that the Paris Agreement requires scaling up emission cuts. It is a
pity that they have shied away from going further in increasing the level of
ambition and making the ETS truly fit for purpose,” Climate Action Network
(CAN) Europe Director
Wendel Trio said.
https://www.neweurope.eu/article/meps-call-stronger-eu-carbon-market/
December 16, 2016