Reform of the carbon market, CO2 standards for vehicles, aviation… the 8 climate bills examined by the European Parliament – Le Monde

It is the largest legislative package ever examined in Europe. In July and December 2021, the European Commission presented some twenty legislative proposals to enable the European Union (EU) to meet its climate objectives: to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by at least 55% to the 2030 horizon compared to 1990 in order to achieve carbon neutrality in 2050. On Wednesday 8 June, the European Parliament was to vote on eight of these texts, which will then be examined by the Council, before a trialogue. Overview of these technical legislations which will draw the climate roadmap of the Twenty-Seven. Reform of the carbon market MEPs have rejected a key text on the strengthening of the European carbon market, deemed not ambitious enough by the left and too ambitious by sovereigntists and the far right, which will lead to a complete renegotiation of this pillar of the plan climate of the EU in parliamentary committee. The most polluting industries (electricity production, steel industry, cement, etc.), which represent 40% of CO2 emissions in the EU, have been subject since 2005 to the emissions trading system (Emissions Trading System, ETS ), i.e. they have to pay for their emissions. While this polluter-pays principle has worked for the electricity sector, it has not enabled heavy industry to reduce its carbon emissions. It benefits from millions of free allowances (which cover 94% of its emissions), set up to avoid relocations, and the price of a tonne of CO2 has long remained too low to be an incentive. The Commission, which has included the maritime sector in the ETS, proposes to put pressure on the market, by gradually reducing the number of rights to pollute and by programming the progressive end of free quotas, in order to raise the price per ton of CO2 − today around 80 euros. The end date of free quotas (in 2030, 2032 or 2034) is debated. “We must quickly stop this subsidy for pollution”, calls Thomas Pellerin-Carlin, director of the energy center of the Jacques-Delors Institute, recalling that it is the equivalent of 90 billion euros which went to the industry. this way since 2008. The text also provides for the creation, from 2025, of a second carbon market, for the heating of buildings and road transport. In practice, this amounts to requiring fuel, gas or fuel oil suppliers to buy rights to pollute, an additional cost that they could pass on to household bills. To limit the social impacts, particularly in the context of the war in Ukraine and soaring prices, and three years after the “yellow vests” conflict, Parliament proposed not to integrate households into this market before 2029 and to cap the price of CO2 at 50 euros per ton. You have 58.14% of this article left to read. The following is for subscribers only.