EU climate package: Boxed-in European parliament endorses climate package of legislation
The European Parliament today voted to adopt the climate package of legislation (1), based on the compromise first reading positions agreed last weekend. Following the vote, Finnish Green MEP and vice-chair of the EP environment committee Satu Hassi stated:
"The climate package as it stands after today's vote fails to meet what the European Parliament wanted and clearly falls far short of the advice of the scientific consensus on the necessary measures need to tackle climate change. By disregarding the standard legislative decision-making process, the French presidency submitted the package to a free-for-all under which the national governments tore strips out of the legislative proposals.
"It is important to recognise however that this climate package represents merely the opening position from the EU in the advance of an international climate agreement: a kind of 'worst case scenario'. In the event of an international climate deal, which we are both hoping for and assuming, the EU will have to seriously scale up its effort.
"This will start by upgrading the EU emissions reduction effort to at least 30% to bring it in line with the scientific advice of the UN IPCC, which has been endorsed by the EU. However, clearly some of the glaring inconsistencies in the EU emissions reduction legislation will have to be addressed."
UK Green MEP Dr Caroline Lucas, who was involved in negotiating the legislation on a post-2012 emissions trading scheme, added:
"As Greens, we were ultimately unable to vote for the proposal on the effort sharing of emissions from non-ETS sectors, despite Green MEP Satu Hassi's phenomenal effort in negotiations as EP rapporteur. The insistence by member states on a provision to permit the outsourcing of over 80% of the emissions reductions through external offsetting (buying 'credits' in emissions reduction projects in developing countries to avoid making domestic reductions) seriously undermined this legislation. The Greens could not accept this neocolonial approach to climate policy, which would allow rich European countries to continue their own unsustainable development model at the expense poorer developing countries .
"The proposals on a post-2012 emissions trading scheme also fall far short of what we hoped for. However, this legislation does provide for full auctioning of energy sector emissions in the 15 countries that are longer established as EU members. It is abuilding block for the real EU climate policy post-Copenhagen. For this reason, the Greens voted reluctantly in favour of the emissions trading scheme.
"This is the opening salvo for EU climate policy. We will now need to focus our efforts on removing the main flaws following the successful conclusion of an international climate agreement. Notably, by stepping up the EU emissions reduction effort and ensuring that this is delivered in the EU and not offset in developing countries, as well as ensuring that the ETS can provide a realistic carbon price through the full auctioning of emissions permits."
(1) Legislation for a post-2012 emissions trading scheme (ETS); the effort sharing of emissions reductions from non-ETS sectors; renewable energy; fuel quality; CO2 emissions limits for cars; and a framework for carbon capture and storage.
