EP Commission endorses demanding more demanding cuts in_CO2 emissions from countries

The European Parliament’s Committee on the Environment and Public Health on Tuesday backed the regulation that will require countries to more demanding reductions in their_CO2 emissions to help the bloc meet the goal of cutting them by 55% by 2030.

The parliamentary committee set its negotiating position on Tuesday on a series of measures that are part of the package called Fit for 55, with which the EU wants to advance in its ecological transition towards climate neutrality by mid-century.

Before the negotiations of each of the regulations with the Member States begin, these red lines will have to be confirmed in the plenary session of the European Parliament scheduled for the beginning of June.

In particular, MEPs endorsed raising Member States’ emission reduction target at the end of this decade from the current 30% to the current 40% for buildings, national road and maritime transport, agriculture, waste and small industries that are not part of the ETS emissions trading system.

In the case of Spain, the update means raising the national target from 26% today to 37.7%, a target lower than germany and Denmark’s 50%, France’s 47.5% or Italy’s 43.7%, but higher, for example, Romania’s 12.7% or Bulgaria’s 10%.

The Environment Committee also supported the reform of the European Emissions Trading System (ETS), whose greenhouse gas emissions must be reduced by 61% compared to 2005 levels.

MEPs called for accelerating the reduction of emission allowances within the ETS and also advocated extending it to maritime transport to cover all emissions from all European routes from 2024 and half of the emissions from international routes from that same year until the end of 2026.

Regarding the new ETS proposed by the European Commission, MEPs are in favour of launching it on 1 January 2025 for buildings and road transport, but provided that it excludes households and private transport at least until 2029.

In another vote, the European parliamentary commission backed the implementation of the so-called border adjustment mechanism or CBAM, which seeks to tax imports into the EU of products with a carbon footprint, but introduced modifications aimed at making the project more ambitious.

Thus, they defend its creation from January 1, 2023 with a transition period until the end of 2024, so that it is “fully applicable” already in 2030, five years before the date proposed by Brussels. Among the sectors covered, they ask to add organic chemicals, plastics, hydrogen and aluminum.

Finally, MEPs approved their negotiating position on the Land Use and Forestry Regulation (LULUCF), which includes the action of natural_CO2-emitting sinks such as forests and whose contribution could raise the target for 2030 to 57%.

The Environment Committee supported in this regard that natural sinks reduce an additional 50 million tonnes of_CO2 in net terms and advocated introducing intermediate national targets every five years.

Source: Swiss Info