The European Commission publishes its new legislative Summer Package
On the 20th of July the European Commission published a new set of proposals to implement the COP21 commitment to reduce GHG emissions of at least 40% by 2030.
Following the ETS proposal of last year in July, this second set of legislative proposals tackles GHG emissions in the remaining sectors, i.e. transport, buildings, agriculture, waste, land-use and forestry sectors valid for the period 2021-2030. The Strategy on low-emission mobility issued together with the proposals addresses further actions to push for GHG emissions reduction mostly in road transport.
The Package includes:
• Communication on a Strategy for low-emission mobility – It is a non-legislative text providing guidance on the future actions to be carried by the Commission to fight GHG emissions in the transport sector. It confirms the absence of a sub-target for renewables in transport after 2020 and the phasing out of food crops-based biofuels. Legislative incentives for non-food crops-based biofuels could be included in the upcoming revision of the Renewable Energy Directive. New measures related to the improvement of fuels efficiency and deployment of infrastructures are also foreseen.
• Effort Sharing Regulation – This legislative text implements the European effort to reduce GHG emissions outside the ETS. The sectors included are: transport, buildings, agriculture and waste. In the period 2021-2030, the EU will have to achieve collectively a reduction of 30% in the non-ETS sectors. To this end, each Member State is given an individual 2030 reduction target against its 2005 emissions and the possibility to decide on which sector applies the reduction effort and to what extent.
• Land Use, Land Use Change and Forestry Regulation – The legislative text sets provisions to manage GHG emissions from activities such as forestry and tree planting, whose emissions should be maintained carbon-neutral until 2030. A new flexibility mechanism allows Member States to take advantage of the surplus net removals from LULUCF activities to compensate exceeding emissions in other sectors. A cap limits the use of these credits.
You can find all the related documents in the official press release [and a more detailed analysis of the Package on the EBA’s website (members-only)].
