Cop 27: EU to await ETS deal for climate target updates

The EU will update its emissions targets once all elements of its so-called Fit for 55 legislative package have been agreed, the outstanding element of which is the section relating to the EU emissions trading system (ETS), representative of the Czech presidency of the EU Council Pavel Zamyslicky told the UN Cop 27 climate conference in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, today.

"After we have the full agreement on the Fit for 55 we are planning to update all the information… on the EU targets and sub-targets," as well as targets for individual member states and sectors, Zamyslicky, who is director of energy and climate protection at the Czech environment ministry, told conference delegates.

The EU is hoping for an agreement to be reached on the final part of its Fit for 55 package — constituting revisions to the EU ETS — in December, Zamyslicky said. Proposed changes to the scheme put forward by the European Commission last year are currently at the stage of trilogue negotiations between the commission, the European Parliament and European Council.

Zamyslicky was speaking after the EU agreed a law setting a target of 310mn t CO2 equivalent (CO2e) of net greenhouse gas (GHG) removals in the land use, land use change and forestry (LULUCF) sector by 2030.

The parliament said the new target will increase the EU's GHG reductions to 57pc by 2030 compared with 1990 levels, from 55pc based on previous calculations, assuming LULUCF savings of 225mn t CO2e.

But the EU is not for the moment changing its "headline" target of a 55pc GHG cut by the end of this decade, Zamyslicky said. "If we can go beyond it that would of course be beneficial to all," he said.

The EU set its latest nationally determined contribution to the Paris climate agreement, of a net reduction of at least 55pc by 2030 compared with 1990 levels, in late 2020. Under the Glasgow climate pact agreed at last year's Cop 26, parties were requested "to revisit and strengthen the 2030 targets in their nationally determined contributions as necessary to align with the Paris Agreement temperature goal by the end of 2022".

By Victoria Hatherick