European Commission wants to allow transferring part of climate efforts to poorer countries - Politico
Kyiv • UNN
The European Commission wants to allow EU countries, starting from 2036, to transfer part of their climate efforts to poorer countries by using international carbon credits. This would allow counting greenhouse gas emission reductions achieved in other countries towards the EU's own 2040 target, which stipulates a 90% emission reduction from 1990 levels.
The European Commission wants to allow countries to outsource part of their climate efforts to poorer countries from 2036, Politico reports, citing a draft proposal, writes UNN.
Details
The EU executive body plans to submit the block's emission reduction target for 2040 on Wednesday after several months of delay. The target will be set at 90% below the 1990 level, as shown in the draft amendment to the European Climate Law.
But, as the publication reported in mid-June, the European Commission intends to achieve up to 3 percentage points of the new target with the help of international carbon credits, despite strong criticism from its scientific advisors. This plan is consistent with Germany's position from 2040.
Such credits will allow the EU to pay for emission reduction projects in other, usually poorer countries, and to count the resulting greenhouse gas reductions towards its own 2040 target, rather than the climate targets of the host country. The draft proposal provides for their use only in the second half of the decade.
"Starting in 2036, a limited contribution to the achievement of the 2040 target of high-quality international credits in accordance with Article 6 of the Paris Agreement" - global rules governing carbon credits - "not more than 3% of the EU's net emissions in 1990," the draft says.
The European Commission intends to propose legislation regulating such credits on an unspecified date, the draft adds. "Their specific role and deployment should be based on a thorough impact assessment and depend on the development of Union legislation setting robust and high integrity criteria and standards, as well as conditions regarding the origin, timing and use of such credits," the draft states.
Critics, including the bloc's scientific advisors, warn that even partial reliance on international credits risks slowing down the EU's climate efforts at home. Existing EU targets for 2030 and 2050 must be met solely through domestic measures.
But the proposal specifically makes it impossible to integrate credits into the EU carbon market, an option that some experts feared could collapse the price of CO2 in the bloc, which is designed to incentivize companies to reduce their emissions.
"These international credits should play no role in compliance with regulations on the EU carbon market," the draft says.
Carbon credits are just one of 18 "elements" – essentially, promises to make the target more acceptable to skeptical governments – that the European Commission plans to integrate into the EU's post-2030 climate policy framework, according to a draft dated June 27.
Others include opening the bloc's carbon market to permanent CO2 removal – for example, by capturing carbon directly from the air, a method not yet available at such a scale – and increasing flexibility across different sectors.
Other promises to EU countries are much vaguer, as the European Commission promises to pay attention to everything from scientific recommendations and social consequences to economic efficiency and economic competitiveness in its 2040 policy framework.
The 2040 target was met with significant resistance from governments, many of whom sent long lists of conditions for supporting the target to Brussels. Last week, French President Emmanuel Macron joined Poland and Hungary in demanding delays.
In its draft proposal, the European Commission insists that "the 90% target puts the EU on a path that provides the greatest mutual benefits in terms of competitiveness, sustainability, independence, autonomy, a just transition and ensuring that the EU fulfills its obligations under the Paris Agreement."