What is the EU doing?
2019 European Parliament Declared a “climate and environmental emergency”. 2020 EU leaders pledge to reduce greenhouse gas emissions 55% reduction by the end of this decadeNow is the hard part: Translate the promises into policies to curb dangerous global warming.
Wednesday, the European Commission More than a dozen legislative proposals have been issued to ensure that its climate and energy laws meet the goal of reducing emissions by 55% from 1990 levels by 2030. From phasing out internal combustion engines to forest protection, no sector of the EU economy will be affected.
What are the main recommendations?
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EU member states will face stricter greenhouse gas emission reduction targets and the goal of increasing renewable energy by 2030. The European Union’s goal is to generate 40% of its energy from renewable sources by the end of 2010.
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Under the European Emissions Trading System (ETS), the cost of pollution for power generators and heavy industries will become higher. The emission cap of ETS will be tightened. Starting from 2030, the free quota will be gradually cancelled, which will gradually increase the cost of pollution.
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Foreign companies that import steel, aluminum and other carbon-intensive products into the EU must purchase quotas to sell their products to the European single market. The “carbon border adjustment mechanism” aims to protect EU companies from losing out to competitors with more relaxed regulations.
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By 2025, a new emissions trading system will be established for fuel producers that supply buildings and road transportation. To avoid critics’ warnings about rising energy costs, EU executives hope to set up a 144.4 billion euros (£123.2 billion) fund to help people pay for energy efficiency upgrades for houses and greener cars, of which 72 billion euros comes from the EU budget. .
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After years of slow progress, the EU will completely reform the energy tax law that officials call “outdated” to gradually eliminate the EU’s tax relief for fossil fuels in aviation and shipping.
Does it all add up?
Although the President of the European Commission Ursula von der Lein insists that the entire plan is based on scientific advice, green activists have different interpretations of the scientific requirements. Many NGOs and green politicians hope to reach the 65% or 70% target. Greenpeace mocked the EU’s statement as a “firework show on the garbage dump.”
Activists also worry about “accounting techniques”, such as EU member states being free to use offsets—buying emission reduction credits from better-performing countries—rather than doing hard work at home. The Green Party was also shocked by their belief that they had failed to close a major loophole. Activists say that not enough has been done to prevent forests from being cut down as fuel, and this result will have the adverse effects of increasing greenhouse gas emissions and destroying nature.
What changes might people notice?
If the plan is successful, car pollution will be reduced. Emission standards for cars and trucks will be tightened, and the production of diesel and gasoline-powered cars will become a thing of the past by 2035. The charging points should be wider, theoretically every 60 kilometers on the main road.
People should get more help through the EU’s “Social Climate Fund” to isolate houses and buy green cars. Governments must help fund the fund and organize these programs.
But the chosen reform model may lead to soaring energy costs. The planned housing and road traffic emissions trading system requires heating and fuel producers to purchase allowances, which will make fuel more expensive.
Critics believe that Brussels is likely to be strongly opposed by low- and middle-income people who rely on cars, which may repeat French President Emmanuel Macron (Emmanuel Macron) and Yellow vest (Yellow vest) Protest against the fuel tax. One analysis The proposed committee proposal may increase the average household energy bill by 429 Euros and driving costs by 373 Euros.
How will this affect the rest of the world?
The plan to impose a special carbon tax on polluting imports is the measure most likely to attract the attention of China, the United States, Australia and other countries that import polluting products into the European Union. The plan-a carbon boundary adjustment mechanism-means that from 2026, companies must purchase quotas to sell certain carbon-intensive products in the EU, including steel, fertilizers and aluminum. The purpose is to put foreign imports in a level playing field with European companies that have long been protesting against “carbon leakage”. For example, the market share of EU steel producers is taken away by competitors with more relaxed regulations outside the EU, and there is no overall volume of total emissions. cut back.
EU officials believe they can avoid retaliation from the World Trade Organization because they say the plan is aimed at companies, not countries. The tax is based on the carbon dioxide content of the product, which incentivizes companies to switch to more environmentally friendly production.
Foreign countries may also protest plans to include large ships calling at EU ports into the emissions trading system.
What will happen now?
EU ministers and members of parliament must agree to more than a dozen texts in the accelerated process that legislators hope to complete in 2022. These laws must be agreed by unions that span governments with lukewarm climates, such as coal-dependent Poland and fanatics such as Sweden, Denmark, and Finland.
As activists, business groups, and non-EU countries seek to tough, downplay and discard proposals they don’t like, crazy lobbying is expected. According to the analysis of the British think tank Influence Map, most large companies now support the EU’s goal of achieving net zero emissions by 2050, but if this means taking action in the next ten years, support will be significantly weakened. Their analysis of 216 industry organizations shows that only 36% of companies support the goal of reducing emissions by 55% by 2030.
Peter Weiss, a former senior EU official, said: “The days of bragging about the air and saying let us achieve zero carbon emissions by 2050… now are over.” “From now on, the focus is not on grand declarations, but on what follows Hard choice.”
