The European Commission has presented this Wednesday a battery of measures, reforms and new legislation that should push the most polluting sectors to drastically reduce their emissions. The climate and environmental pillar is at the top of the community agenda in this legislature, and although there is consensus in the 27 capitals on the need to take giant steps, it is also clear that the fight against climate change has a price and that happens for a radical change in how we move or how we live, one that will affect the pockets of Europeans in the short term.
In December 2020, after a long tug of war, the leaders of the
European Union
pledged to achieve climate neutrality by 2050 and reduce emissions compared to 1990 by 55% in order to achieve this.
For a few weeks, after the entry into force of the Climate Law, it is no longer a political slogan, good words or a promise, it is a legal obligation.
Many of the dozen instruments on the table already exist and, in fact, have been key in reducing greenhouse gas emissions on the continent in the last decade.
But increasing the objectives not only means updating the legislation, but also expanding the sectors that are affected and including new tools that help to achieve them.
Up to seven members of the Commission, including President
Ursula Von der Leyen,
have appeared today at the press conference.
There is an unwritten rule that says that the number of stewards present is inversely proportional to the importance of the measure.
This is perhaps an exception and has more to do with the complex nature of the package of measures presented by the executive and that touches, in one way or another, large portfolios from transportation or energy to agriculture.
Blow to transport
The emissions trading scheme is a mechanism that imposes a maximum limit on the greenhouse gases that can be emitted in certain sectors. This limit decreases over time to guarantee the reduction of emissions. Below that barrier, you can trade with emission rights to cover the maximum pollution allowed per year and thus avoid penalties. Those who have emitted less can sell their rights. Those who spend, buy.
Until now, this system was applied to electricity production, energy-intensive sectors, such as oil refineries or steel mills, and also to the aviation sector and
has achieved almost a 43% reduction since its creation in 2005.
With the Today's proposal, the emission limit is reduced and the market is expanded to maritime transport, one of the most polluting areas.
In parallel, other laws will try to encourage the use of less polluting fuels and clean energies.
In addition, a new specific emissions market is created for buildings and road transport.
The latter will not be in place before 2026 and it will not be the drivers or the owners who will have to pay, but the suppliers of the fuels necessary for the vehicles or heating.
The Commission fears that this will end up having an impact on the final price.
For this reason, on the one hand, it undertakes to try to control that there are no spikes in cost and to give scope for the evolution of the sector towards less polluting technologies.
On the other hand, it will set up a social fund that countries must dedicate, among other things, to tackling energy or transportation poverty.
Around 25% of the proceeds from emissions trading will have to go to this fund to which the EU member states will also have to contribute out of their own pockets.
Cars in the spotlight
It's not just that road transport is in the spotlight. The Commission has set a date for the end of the sale of cars that use an injection engine and fossil fuels: 2035. By 2030, the industry will have to have achieved a reduction in emissions of 55%.
By 2030, all cars produced in the EU will have to be zero emissions.
This also excludes hybrid vehicles. "Zero emissions is zero emissions, you can use an injection engine, but that technology has not been invented until now," warns a senior European source.
Today, with existing technologies, the disappearance of polluting cars passes through electric ones. That is why the Commission insists on the need to support the battery industry, and decarbonise it, but also to create recharging infrastructures throughout the entire territory. For this reason, the revision of the regulation on alternative fuels plans to push countries to create
charging points for electric cars every 60km
and for hydrogen every 150km on large highways, making use, among other instruments, of the recovery fund.
The executive is confident in the efforts of the industry to transform the fleet in the coming years and considers that the margin is more than enough for adaptation, although he recognizes that the challenges are important and that it will inevitably affect employment.
"We are not banning cars, we are proposing an alternative", insists the same source who explains that the objective is to generate sufficient incentives so that there is a market for the manufacture of non-polluting cars and also that they are affordable, and also that a second-hand market for this type of vehicle.
The focus on energy
Energy production, in fact, is
responsible for 75% of emissions
and accelerating the transition in this area is crucial.
To do this, the Commission also wants energy taxes to be aligned across the Union and compatible with green transformation goals.
The existing directive, understands the Executive, encourages the use of fossil fuels that it aspires to eliminate in the next decade.
However, fiscal policy decisions in the EU require unanimity.
Reaching an agreement among member states - with the east still heavily dependent on coal - will not be easy.
But the Commission warns that the package of measures is strongly interconnected.
And if a piece comes out, you will need an alternative.
It also wants to increase the target for the use of renewables and ensure that 40% of energy comes from this source by 2030. All countries must work in this area to achieve this, which would also reduce Europe's dependence on third countries, such as Russia or the United States.
But it is not just about the type of energy we use but how much.
The Commission has also updated energy legislation that will oblige the public sector, among other things, to
renovate 3% of its buildings
so that they consume less.
The measure also aims to boost the use of biofuels.
3,000 million trees
The Commission has also presented a new forestry strategy that tries to reconcile the need to preserve ecosystems to protect biodiversity, with the economic activity of forests - including the production of biofuels - and the role that green areas play when it comes to absorb emissions.
This point has also raised suspicions among some countries that consider that the Commission is exceeding its powers and that forest management is a national matter.
Green diplomacy
Another of the most anticipated - and also most controversial - points of the proposal is the implementation of a carbon border adjustment mechanism, known as
CBAM (Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism)
for its acronym in English. This mechanism will apply to those companies that trade in aluminum, steel, cement and fertilizers in the EU and that will see their products priced if they come from countries with lower carbon prices than those of the Union.
The aim is to prevent European companies from relocating their factories to countries where pollution regulation is more lax than the European one, and to encourage climate policies outside the Union as well.
Although the Commission insists that the measure respects the rules of the World Trade Organization, some partners, from the United States to China, have already expressed their reluctance to implement the mechanism.
The Commission will start requesting emissions reports from trading partners from 2023 and would only apply rates from 2026, giving companies a kind of transition period to calculate their CO2 emissions and prepare to adapt to the legislation European.
The battle for the climate
The proposal of the executive of Ursula Von der Leyen is that the weight of the ecological transition, its cost, falls as far as possible, on the shoulders of society as a whole, not on those of a few, but it will not be easy . The transition requires public and private investment, innovation in backward sectors, but also, necessarily, passes through the change in the daily life of citizens.
Those who care about the environment and understand that action to curb the climate crisis is necessary, will see their convictions put to the test with a battery of policies that will affect their daily lives. "Yes, it is a matter of individual elections, but they are made in the context of legislation that serves the common good," explained a senior European source, "the vast majority of our citizens demand action against climate change. its principles when it affects their behavior? I don't know. But if we don't do anything because the citizens are going to support it or not, we will see serious problems. "
The Commission's proposal will now be closely scrutinized by the 27 member states, hugely divided on this issue, and the
European Parliament,
which tends to be more ambitious.
Both will embark in the coming months in tough negotiations that could take years, with Spain's presidency of the Council just around the corner, and the first objective set in less than a decade.
If the EU wants to achieve climate neutrality by 2050, the dramatic revolution that the industry needs will come at a price.
Don't do it, too.
The Union has already got to work.
Nature does not wait.
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