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Now it is important to follow the money / Member States are obliged to follow it on purpose. Social aspects must be duly taken into account / Everybody who saves CO2 will win


“I am very happy that the biggest climate law ever has been agreed with a broad majority in the European Parliament. Emissions trading is the core element of the Fit-for-55 package, delivering 25 times the CO2 reduction of the controversial car CO2 emissions rule for our 2030 targets. Even though there has been some discussions around CO2 cars, I don’t expect the approval in Council to be a problem in the coming week,” said the environment policy spokesman for the largest group in the European Parliament (EPP, Christian Democrats), Dr. Peter Liese.

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Burning dirty fuels without exhaust gas cleaning must no longer be profitable / Important for climate, but also for air quality in cities / Targeted support for innovation


Next Tuesday, the European Parliament is facing a historic decision. After more than ten years of discussion, shipping is to be included in the EU’s emissions trading system. The European Parliament, the representatives of the Member States and the Commission already agreed on the details at the end of last year. "Ships often use very dirty fuels, the so-called 'bunker fuels', which can be considered as waste in the refineries. Since there are also hardly any effective gas cleaning systems, this is not only a problem for the climate, but also for air quality in cities along rivers or coastal cities. Although far-reaching measures have been implemented to reduce emissions from cars, cities sometimes fail to meet air quality standards because ships spoil the balance. For ten years, the European Parliament has thus been fighting for the inclusion of shipping in emissions trading," explained Peter Liese, environmental policy spokesman for the largest group in the European Parliament (EPP, Christian Democrats) and rapporteur for the reform of emissions trading system (ETS).  

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Much climate protection for as little money as possible/  A core element of European climate policy / Much more significant than CO2 cars and other regulations/ All revenues must be spent in a targeted manner, in the case of ETS 2 for heating and transport, social aspects must be taken into account


"We are on the verge of adopting the biggest climate protection law of all time," stated the environmental policy spokesperson of the largest political group in the European Parliament and rapporteur for the European emissions trading, EPP MEP Peter Liese. Today, on Monday, the European Parliament will discuss a legislative package and vote on the relevant texts tomorrow, on Tuesday. The topic is emissions trading, which covers so far not only energy-intensive industry, power generation and aviation, but will also include maritime transport in the future. A separate ETS 2 will further cover road transport and heat generation, i.e., heating of buildings and process heat in industry. With its extension to maritime transport, the existing ETS alone will accomplish 25 times as much CO2 savings by 2030 as the controversial regulation on CO2 emissions from cars.

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Important to inform consumers correctly / Over-bureaucratic ideas by some in the Commission avoided

On Wednesday, the European Commission presented its proposal on so-called “green claims”. If a company claims that their product or service is in particular good for the environment, for example, that it is carbon neutral or uses 50% of recycled content, this should be sustained by appropriate evidence.

Peter Liese, environmental spokesperson for the largest group in the European Parliament (EPP, Christian Democrats) welcomed the proposal: “It is very important that if you claim that you product or service is environment friendly, you also have some evidence for this. It is important that consumers can easily identify environment and climate friendly products and be sure that these claims are true. The proposal will not only fight greenwashing but also harmonise the oversupply of about 230 ‘green’ labels currently found on the European market. This will benefit those companies that are actually moving in the right direction. Generally, I am very happy that the proposal is not over-bureaucratic. It would not be a good idea if a small or medium sized company had to hire consultants or pay high amounts of money to lawyers just to clarify that they do something that is positive but quite obvious,” said Liese. In an earlier draft, the Commission proposal was much more sophisticated and companies would have had a lot of bureaucratic burden.

  1. Peter Liese on the dispute over the phase-out of the combustion engine
  2. Peter Liese on the report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC):
  3. Peter Liese in the run-up to the publication of the latest Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report:
  4. Vote on important climate law: Environment Committee supports drastic reduction of the so-called f-gases