- Climate target 2040: Will negative emissions be integrated into the ETS?
- Deforestation-free supply chains: Are smallholders in Congo victims?
- Chip factory in France: Commission approves aid
- Deal ends dispute over grain from Ukraine
- Trilogue on Buildings Directive in June
- Ex-MEPs must wait in the ‘cooling basin’ for six months
- Heads: Bettina Fortunato – life as a real European during the Berlin Wall era
Commission President Ursula von der Leyen’s current mandate is informally entitled “ensuring that Europe meets its climate target of minus 55 percent CO2 by 2030″. Parliament and member states are still wrangling over the details of individual dossiers, while other projects in the Fit for 55 package have already been ticked off. But the authority is already eyeing what the next climate target might be in 2040, ten years later. My colleague Lukas Scheid reports on considerations to include negative emissions in the ETS.
In Europe, the recent compromise on the Deforestation-Free Supply Chain Regulation is being celebrated. It is intended to help ensure that the last rainforests in the Congo and Amazon basins are not cleared for consumption by Europeans. But on the ground, for example in the Democratic Republic of Congo, there are concerns: small farmers growing cocoa and coffee in primary rainforests, of all places, might not be able to cope with the EU’s complex documentation requirements. They could become economic victims of EU regulation. Jonas Gerding analyzes this as part of our series “Is Europe Regulating the World?”.
The reform of the European electricity market is the topic of a digital event by Table.Media at the Berlin Energy Days tomorrow. On May 3, from 2-3 p.m., our editor Manuel Berkel will discuss the issue with experts from the Internal Market Unit of the EU Commission’s Directorate General for Energy, BDEW and DIW Berlin. France’s position will be the subject of an introductory presentation by the Franco-German Office for the Energy Transition, which is also a partner of the event. To register for the online event, click here.
We hope you have a wonderful start to the new week.
Markus Grabitz
Feature
Climate target 2040: Will negative emissions be integrated into the ETS?
A lot of market economy, some regulatory law and quite a lot of hope for innovation are in the Fit for 55 package, which is intended to pave the way to the EU’s 2030 climate target. The reform of the European Emissions Trading System (ETS) and the introduction of the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism CBAM are the major market-based instruments of the climate protection package and the heart of the Green Deal. On Tuesday, the Council gave final approval to the ETS reform and the CBAM. The two laws can now be published in the Official Journal and enter into force. The CO2 fleet targets for passenger cars and the ramp-up of EU-wide charging infrastructure (AFIR) are regulatory measures, and the efficiency targets in the Battery Regulation focus primarily on technological advancement in the future.
But as soon as the main parts of the package have been written into law, the question arises as to the next target and which instruments are suitable for achieving it. If the target for 2030 is a CO2 reduction of around 55 percent, it could be as high as 90 percent by 2040. The Commission has already begun discussions on the target and the necessary measures. An impact assessment is to be published in spring 2024, with the legislative proposal for the new climate target expected to follow in 2026.
EPP to consider carbon removal
A key question raised by the Commission in its announcement is the role of CO2 removals for the 2040 climate target. From the ranks of the EPP, the demand is clear: Negative emissions must be integrated into emissions trading. ETS rapporteur Peter Liese even wanted to anchor this in the current reform, because without carbon removal technologies the ambitious climate targets would be almost impossible to achieve. Liese was unable to get his way. And the discussions are unlikely to get any easier with the next interim target on the road to climate neutrality in 2050, because resistance continues unabated.
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