MEPs reject a “not ambitious enough” key text for carbon market reform
MEPs failed a text on the reform of the carbon market, this Wednesday, June 8, 2022 to everyone's surprise.
© FREDERICK FLORIN/AFP
Text by: RFI Follow
2 mins
MEPs rejected this Wednesday, June 8 in plenary session a key text on the reform of the European carbon market, deemed not ambitious enough by the Greens and the left.
This will lead to a complete renegotiation of this pillar of the EU climate plan in parliamentary committee.
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This text provided for the expansion of the market for trading CO2 emission quotas, but also the abolition of free quotas for European industrialists in exchange for a carbon tax at the borders of the EU.
It was rejected to general surprise by 340 votes against (265 for, 34 abstentions).
The European Parliament was due to vote on Wednesday on eight of the fourteen texts of the roadmap proposed in July 2021 by the European Commission to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 55% by 2030, compared to 1990. the EU.
“
Thunderbolt!
The majority must review its copy (...) because of rules that are not ambitious enough.
The climate does not wait
,” commented MEP Karima Delli (Greens).
While the rapporteur for the text, Peter Liese (EPP) declares “
What a terrible day.
It's a shame to see the far right vote with the socialists and the greens
,”
In a very electric atmosphere within the hemicycle of the European Parliament in Strasbourg, the German MEP called for the text to be revised in parliamentary committee to propose a revised version for a subsequent vote, which a large majority of MEPs approved .
The legislative proposal submitted to MEPs on the carbon market reflected a compromise reached between the EPP (pro-European right, the main force in Parliament) and Renew (centrists and liberals).
In particular, it provided for a reduction of 63% by 2030, compared to 2005, in emissions from sectors subject to the European carbon market: better than the objective proposed by the Commission (-61%), but significantly lower than to the vote
in the Environment Parliamentary Committee
(-67%).
Amendments in the name of business competitiveness
It also adjusted the timetable for eliminating the free emission quotas granted to European industrialists, as imports into the EU of polluting sectors will be taxed on the basis of the price of European CO2.
An amendment to the text, pushed by the EPP, demanded that these free quotas be maintained in the EU until 2034, in the name of business competitiveness... which also postponed the full implementation of the tax until 2034. carbon at borders.
Previously, the Environment Committee had voted for this "
border adjustment
" to apply in full from 2030 (five years earlier than what the Commission was proposing) and for free allowances to be abolished from that date.
The final text including these arbitrations provoked strong opposition from the Greens, S&D (social democrats) and the radical left, as well as from the far right of the hemicycle.
►Also read: MEPs vote on the “climate package” to turn the page on the heat engine
(
With
AFP)
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