“In a third trilogue, negotiators of the European Parliament, European Council and European Commission agreed on some important elements on the revision of the European emissions trading scheme”, said the rapporteur of the Parliament, Peter Liese.
“Among other things, we agreed on a much stricter wording on international climate finance. Some member states are already using the revenues from the ETS to contribute to their obligation at international level but others are falling very short compared to their obligations, for example, from Glasgow last year. We have now fixed legally that member states need to report on the obligations that they have in this respect such as their strong commitment to continue scaling up their international climate finance towards the developed countries´ goal of mobilising at least USD 100 billion per year as soon as possible and that they substantially increase their efforts in this respect. I think it is an important signal to the international community that gathers in Sharm El Sheikh. Climate finance is the big issue here and it is very important that the revenues from the ETS don’t just disappear in the normal budget but are spent on purpose. Climate finance is one if the elements. Our ETS and in particular CBAM will be more acceptable for third countries if we clearly commit that the money is also spent on the international agenda.”
Read more: More money for international climate finance and stronger mechanism against price hikes
"The electoral success of Lula da Silva in Brazil is a huge opportunity for climate protection. It will perhaps be the last chance to still meet the Paris climate targets and thus avoiding dangerous tipping points. The European Union and the other industrialized countries must now react wisely to seize this opportunity," stated the spokesperson for environmental policy of the largest group in the European Parliament, Dr. Peter Liese (EPP Christian Democrats).
"In contrast to previous elections, the issue of deforestation of the rainforest has played a prominent role in this campaign. Even though it was a close result - the winner's name is Lula da Silva, who clearly announced during his campaign that he would drastically tighten measures to protect the rainforest. This is a huge opportunity, and we should seize it together with the global community. Only if the deforestation of the rainforests is stopped will we have a realistic chance of achieving the Paris climate agreements of keeping global warming well below 2 degrees and, if possible, limiting it to 1.5 degrees.
"The European Union can and must further increase its climate target, which is already very ambitious with 55%, to create an overall dynamic that will allow us to reach the Paris climate goal. We also need to seize the opportunity of Bolsonaro's defeat in Brazil and build global partnerships to protect the rainforest," said Dr Peter Liese, environment spokesperson of the largest political group in the European Parliament (EPP/Christian Democrats), on the occasion of the start of the climate change conference in Sharm-el-Sheikh.
"Our climate target is the most ambitious target ever presented by a major emitter. The comparison with the US in particular is impressive. Even if President Biden achieves his target and reduces emissions by 50% by 2030 compared to 2005, Americans will still emit 2.5 times more emissions per capita than Europeans.
Read more: Peter Liese before the start of COP27 in Sharm-el Sheikh:
"We need to address the problem of the high-energy prices with all possible means. One cannot overestimate the problems that citizens and companies are facing. At the same time, we need to get finally rid of our dependence on Russian energy. Due to our energy bill, we still finance the Russian aggression in Ukraine. On top of that, it is not at all the time to give up our goals for climate ambition. If possible, we should even increase it for 2030. It almost sounds as the square of the circle, but I think it is our duty to do so.” These were the comments of Peter Liese, Rapporteur of the European Parliament for the Emission trading scheme and the respective part of REPowerEU.
The Parliament’s Environment Committee, which has exclusive competences for this part of REPowerEU, last Monday agreed on their position on REPowerEU. One day later the Council agreed on a very different approach. The Parliament wants to finance the €20 billion in REPowerEU for the necessary infrastructure to get rid of Russian gas, for example, renewables and energy efficiency, by a frontloading of the certificates or rather emissions. However, the Council wants to finance the big bulk of the REPowerEU by taking away money from the Innovation Fund. “This fund is to be increased according to the Parliament’s and the Commission’s position to really enable the industry to decarbonize. It is already much smaller than the respective funds in the United States (Inflation Reduction Act). If we don’t want to lose our competitiveness in the field of decarbonisation technologies and the respective industries we can by no means accept the Council’s position here,” explained Peter Liese.
This Monday, the second trilogue and first political trilogue on the ETS took part. Parliament, Czech presidency and the Commission discussed a lot of issues. “There is a good common understanding of some points but on other points we still strongly disagree. I´m happy to see that on some specific points that are of utmost importance for the workers in a big part of the industry, we already solved the problem. We agreed that companies having a high electricity bill and be under the threat of carbon leakage, like aluminium industry, will continue to receive indirect cost compensation. The compensation was never 100 % so that efficiency and decarbonisation will always pay off. But it is important for this sector and other related sectors suffering from the high electricity prices to get predictability that they will continue to be compensated.”
We also agreed to continue to support the steel industry by free allowances. The Commission proposal wanted to get rid of the respective calculation methodology which would have created an enormous challenge for the steel industries much bigger than for other industries after the implementation of the amended ETS. We now concluded that the rules for the steel industry will remain the same. Of course, the steel industry will be challenged by the higher target and the respective changes in the linear reduction factor like all other industries. On some other more technical details we also agreed and on many more we have a good understanding where the landing zone is. So the trilogue was successful but it is of course only a first step and major items are not mature to take a decision. I encourage everybody to look at compromises and move from the original positions. Our common understanding is that an agreement under Czech presidency is possible but to finally arrive there, we need efforts and readiness for compromise from all three institutions,” completed Peter Liese.