The European Parliament must demonstrate full commitment to the EU's planned emissions trading system for road transport and heating fuels (ETS 2) by rejecting amendments put forward by right-wing and conservative groups, German center-right MEP Peter Liese has argued.
Parliament votes on 29 April on a set of compromise amendments to a European Commission proposal to allow the release of up to 80mn allowances a year from the system's market stability reserve (MSR) for ETS 2 if prices exceed €45/t of CO2 equivalent (CO2e), adjusted for inflation from 2020 levels.
The compromise draft calls for the €45/t CO2e trigger to be extended beyond its current 2029 expiry, and indexed to 2026, rather than 2020.
But Liese pointed to amendments to the text that aim to abolish ETS 2 or delay its implementation. Rejecting these "would send a clear signal that the European Parliament remains fundamentally committed to ETS 2", he said.
The main priority in the coming weeks and months should be "to support people through the transition and to reduce dependence on fossil fuels", Liese added.
One amendment, proposed by the far-right Patriots for Europe (PfE) group, would see the deletion of articles introducing the ETS 2. PfE said ETS 2 risks social inequalities during times of "persistent inflation, high energy prices and economic uncertainty". A separate amendment, proposed by a Polish conservative ECR member, also calls for ETS 2 to be deleted.
The PfE group includes Czech MEP Ondrej Knotek, who was charged with writing parliament's legal report on the EU's 2040 climate goals. Knotek voted against the final legal report because it did not include a call that he had made for deletion of the target to reduce EU greenhouse gas emissions by 90pc by 2040 from 1990 levels.
Another amendment, proposed by the Left group, calls for the commission's proposal to change ETS 2's MSR to be withdrawn, calling the proposed change a "major risk" to EU climate targets. The proposed changes would potentially allow for additional supply higher than the required annual ETS 2 reduction of 60mn t CO2e, the group said.
A climate policy adviser to a Green MEP also warned this week that the proposed changes risk weakening decarbonisation investment and could lead to emissions rising in the long term.
