Peter Liese: 60% of EP environmental committee no realistic option / Focus on implementation

The biggest group in the European Parliament supports the proposal of the European Commission for the 2030 climate target in the EU. “We support a net 55% climate target for 2030 but we will focus very much on the ways and means how it will be implemented”, says the environmental spokesperson of the biggest group in the European Parliament (EPP Christian Democrats), Dr Peter Liese. Liese puts a lot of emphasize on the fact that the European Commission will accept the contribution of sinks for example from forests or modern technologies. “If we want to climate neutral we need to work on sinks intensively and we think it is more cost efficient than only to look at the reductions.

The huge majority in the European Parliament agrees that we need to do more to avoid dangerous climate change. If we do not meet the Paris target, it is quite likely that we reach dangerous tipping points and our children and grandchildren can no longer control climate change. It is very encouraging that other important economies in the world like China and South Africa have announced ambitious targets in the recent days and weeks. At the same time, the 55% proposal of the European Commission is by far the most ambitious target by any major economy worldwide. Nobody should hide the fact that it includes a lot of challenges, not only for business but also for every citizen.

It will not be easy but it is possible if we all put our best efforts. The proposal of the environment committee to even increase this target to 60% and to delete the option to include sinks in the calculation goes too far. I do not think there is a solid base for such a target and the proponents did not clearly outline how it can be achieved. It seems to rather be a tactical move but the subject is too serious for tactical moves. Liese explained that the EPP has proposed several amendments to the ENVI report. The most important point in his view is, that the EPP wants to steer the Commission in the right direction when developing the legislation to implement the target. “It would be really a deadlock, if the Commission just increases the member states’ target in the so-called effort sharing by 15%. We need to have more European instruments, especially market-based measures”, Liese concluded.