EU's 2020 climate combat plans emerge

 2457, 08/01/08

EU countries would be able to meet up to a quarter of their national greenhouse gas reduction targets for 2020 by buying emission credits abroad, according to proposals being circulated inside the European commission. States that did not use up this quota could sell it to others that were in danger of missing emission targets.

The proposals will fix in law a target agreed by EU leaders last March to cut the bloc's emissions by 20 per cent compared with 1990 levels by the end of the next decade (EED 09/03/07 http://www.endseuropedaily.com/22791). They have been produced by the environment directorate for internal consultation with other departments.

A draft EU decision (see link below) sets out conditions for meeting the targets, but the targets themselves are omitted. These are being calculated by officials under a complex burden-sharing formula and will be added later.

The commission is due to publish the completed proposal on 23 January (EED 22/10/07 http://www.endseuropedaily.com/24131). It will appear in a package alongside proposed new EU carbon trading and renewable energy targets for 2020. Consultation drafts for these have also been circulated (see separate articles, this issue).

The plans emerged last Thursday and will be discussed at a meeting of senior officials this Thursday. The deadline for comments from other departments is Friday. Any remaining disagreements over the content will be resolved by the 27 commissioners on 23 January. Governments and MEPs would have to agree the proposals before they could become law.

Although the commission's proposed national targets have not yet been revealed, the leaked document gives much useful detail.

 The 2020 reduction effort "should be based on the principle of solidarity between member states and the need for sustainable economic growth across the [EU]," it says. The targets will take into account the relative GDP of member states.

The commission proposes to calculate the 2020 targets from a baseline of emission levels in 2005, the last year for which verified data exist. The targets will be set in a way that ensures the EU's overall 2020 emissions are at least 20 per cent lower than they were in 1990.

States with a "currently low GDP and thus high GDP growth expectations" will be allowed to increase emissions relative to 2005, but are still expected to limit this emission growth. States with a relatively high GDP will need to reduce emission relative to 2005.

To ensure a "fair contribution" from all EU countries, no member state would be asked to cut emissions by more than 20 per cent compared with 2005, and none would be allowed to increase them by more than 20 per cent above 2005 levels.

States would be able to meet their targets by buying carbon credits generated through emission reduction projects abroad - but only up to a value of three per cent of their total emissions. This equates to a quarter of the reduction effort, the directorate says.

Similar "supplementarity" limits on buying foreign carbon credits already exist in the EU's carbon market. But in a novel proposal the directorate says governments should be allowed to "transfer" - that is, to sell - any unused credit quotas to other EU states.

The proposals include a mechanism to increase the burden-sharing goal to a 30 per cent cut by 2020 if global climate talks produce an international agreement in which industrialised countries taken on "comparable emission reductions" and if "economically advanced countries commit themselves to contributing adequately". The text does not say that the individual national limits would be increased linearly. But the limit on foreign credits would rise to eight per cent.

Follow-up: European commission http://ec.europa.eu/index_en.htm, tel: +32 2 299 1111, plus draft EU decision on national greenhouse gas reduction targets for 2020 http://www.endseuropedaily.com/docs/80108a.doc, and explanatory memorandum http://www.endseuropedaily.com/docs/80108b.doc.

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