Europe rolls out ambitious climate change plan, but obstacles loom

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BRUSSELS – Europe on Wednesday laid out a sharply ambitious blueprint for a carbon-neutral future over the next nine years, ushering in what promises two years of tough and tortuous negotiations between industry, 27 countries and the European Parliament.

There is no doubt that the political importance of the efforts, which were prompted by the European Commission, is the EU bureaucracy. It puts Brussels at the forefront of the world’s efforts to decarbonise and reach the goal of a carbon-neutral economy by 2050. To enforce the case, Brussels has committed to reducing its greenhouse gas emissions by 55 percent by 2030 compared to 1990 levels.

Although the European Union produces only about 8 percent of current global carbon emissions, its cumulative emissions since the beginning of the industrial age are among the highest in the world. It also considers itself an important regulatory force for the world and hopes to set an example, inventing new technologies that it can sell and providing new global standards that can lead to a carbon neutral economy.

The United States promised to cut emissions by 40 to 43 percent over the same period. Britain, which will host international COP-26 climate talks in November, has pledged a 68% reduction. China, the world’s largest carbon emitter, has said it only aims to peak emissions by 2030.

“Europe was the first continent to declare itself climate neutral in 2050, and now we are the first to put a concrete roadmap on the table,” Commission Chairperson Ursula von der Leyen said on Wednesday.

UNHCR Deputy Chief Executive Frans Timmermans, responsible for the environment and the Green Deal in Europe, acknowledges the difficulty of the challenge. “We will ask a lot of our fellow citizens,” he said. “We will also demand a lot from our industries, but we are doing it for a good reason. We are doing it to give humanity a fighting chance.”

Mr. Timmermans considers these proposals to be fundamentally important in creating a new economy. “As for the direction Europe is taking, it could actually be of the same nature as the internal market or the euro,” he said.

The EU’s 55 per cent target, which was increased by law in June from 40 per cent, has led to a major pushback by industry, lobbyists and some member states, especially in poor Central Europe, which have traditionally relied on fossil fuels. So the Commission tried to build incremental benchmarks for the industry, including free carbon credits for a decade and many millions of euros in financial aid.

Brussels has also made green investments a key part of its terms for countries using the coronavirus recovery fund. Undoubtedly, while environmentalists have praised Brussels for its efforts, others say it is not going far enough and is relying too much on developing new technologies to reduce carbon emissions.

One of the main proposals announced on Wednesday is a review of Europe’s carbon market, known as the Emissions Trading Scheme, under which major carbon producers such as steel, cement and energy pay directly for their carbon emissions.

Another pivotal but controversial proposal is a carbon caps adjustment tax that would target goods produced outside the bloc, so that European companies that bear the cost of decarbonizing cheaper imports would not be harmed by companies that do not.

This proposal, which will be introduced gradually from 2023, has not been welcomed by many countries that trade with Europe, including the United States. If passed, it can be challenged in the World Trade Organization.

Hundreds of pages of proposed laws – which the commission called “fit 55,” a slogan some have joked better suit a yoga studio – will be hotly debated and inevitably revised before they become binding on the 27-member bloc.

There are concerns that the poor will pay an unfair share of the cost of decarbonization and that it will be seen as an elitist project, leading to more political backlash from populist parties and groups, such as the 2018 “yellow vests” protests over a climate-related problem. French petrol price increase.

This was a warning echoed by Pascal Canvin, the French head of parliament’s environment committee, who warned that expanding the carbon market to include heating and fuel could trigger protests. “We tried it in France,” he said. “He gave us the yellow jackets.”

But the proposals also include the Social Climate Fund, raised from these new taxes, which could provide up to 70 billion euros (about $83 billion) to help governments help the hardest hit.

Without the new legislation, Europe would have reduced its emissions by only 60 percent by 2050, instead of reaching carbon neutrality, Simon Tagliabitra of Bruegel, a Brussels-based economic think tank, said.

The 12 legislative proposals presented on Wednesday are designed to reduce dependence on fossil fuels including coal, oil and natural gas; To expand the use of renewable energy sources including solar, wind and hydro to at least 38.5 percent of total energy by 2030; to force faster development of electric vehicles with stricter CO2 limits and hopefully end the sale of all internal combustion vehicles by 2035 (a goal that some countries, such as France, think is too strict); And to support clean energy options for aviation and shipping, which are major polluters. For the first time, a carbon market for road transport and buildings will be established.

Mr Tagliabitra said transport and heating and cooling of buildings respectively account for 22 per cent and 35 per cent of all carbon emissions in the EU. But he said creating a separate market for them would be politically difficult, as it would increase fuel costs for families and small and medium businesses.

He said the EU was “the first major economy in the world to begin translating climate-neutral ambition into realistic political action”. “But if there is one principle that should guide negotiations over the next two years, it is certainly the principle of climate justice.”

In an effort to ensure that the impact of the transition is socially just, both locally and internationally, it “becomes the most critical component to its long-term success.”

“The onus is on the commission to demonstrate that this leads to solidarity and equity in this transition,” Mr. Timmermans said.

He added, “If we can prove it, I think the resistance will be less. If we fail to prove it, I think the resistance will be enormous.”

It will also be important to stimulate technological development in Europe, which has often lagged behind the United States and China in bringing new ideas to the market.

“Climate action and economic prosperity go hand in hand,” said Eric Rondolat, CEO of lighting company Signify NV, which is headquartered in the Netherlands.

This is why the new legislative package is “so important,” he said. “It will accelerate the deployment of innovative technologies that reduce carbon emissions and create jobs.”

Monica Brunchuk contributed reporting from Brussels, and Jack Ewing from Frankfurt.

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