MEPs get stuck into EU climate package debate

Key areas of contention among MEPs have emerged in a first formal exchange of views on plans to review the EU carbon trading scheme from 2013 and to share out the effort of cutting overall EU greenhouse gas emissions by 20 per cent by 2020. The European parliament's environment committee debated the plans in an extraordinary meeting on Wednesday evening.

Controversy erupted primarily over whether the EU emission trading scheme (ETS) should be extended to forestry and what access the EU should have to international carbon credits generated by emission reduction projects under the Kyoto protocol's CDM and JI mechanisms.

The parliament's rapporteur on the ETS review, Irish centre-right MEP Avril Doyle, repeated her belief that the review must address forestry and shipping emissions, even if only to ask the European commission to set up a framework to address them (EED 27/03/08 http://www.endseuropedaily.com/25101).

She received widespread support on shipping, but most MEPs were sceptical of recognising carbon credits for avoided deforestation, fearing that they could flood emission markets. The European commission also opposes the idea.

Ms Doyle said she was "uneasy" about proposals to restrict CDM and JI credits after 2012 (EED 23/01/08 http://www.endseuropedaily.com/24682). If it can be proved that new projects provide additional emission reductions, it should be possible for them to generate new international credits, she said, giving the example of future carbon capture and storage initiatives in China.

Other MEPs stressed that limits on CDM and JI were important to ensure the EU did not "outsource" its emission reductions. Green MEP Satu Hassi, rapporteur on the 2020 burden-sharing proposal, called the proposed limits for CDM and JI for the non-ETS sector "pretty generous" and suggested they should be tightened.

MEPs stood behind Ms Hassi's other proposals for the effort-sharing plan, namely to include a more rapid enforcement mechanism, such as fines, and to specify post-2020 emission reduction goals.

Follow-up: European parliament environment committee http://www.europarl.europa.eu/comparl/envi/default_en.htm,

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