European Parliament improves key climate law but fails to close all loopholes

The European Parliament voted on the Effort Sharing Regulation (ESR), which covers approximately 60% of the EU's total greenhouse gas emissions across transport, buildings, agriculture, and waste sectors. While the Parliament's position improves the emission baseline to better reflect actual levels—potentially leading to 280 million tonnes of additional emission cuts compared to the Commission's proposal—it maintains a 280Mt limit on land use and forestry offsets for agriculture. Additionally, the document notes the introduction of an 'early action reserve' of up to 90 Mt CO2e in carbon permits, which the author suggests may reward past emission savings and risk widening per capita emission divergences in Europe.

• The Effort Sharing Regulation (ESR) is the European Union's largest climate law for the post-2020 period, covering roughly 60% of the Union's total greenhouse gas emissions with a goal to reduce emissions from transport, buildings, agriculture, and waste management by 30% by 2030.
• The European Parliament's position improves the starting point for emissions to better reflect actual 2020 levels, which is estimated to result in approximately 370 Mt CO2e of additional emission cuts compared to the European Commission's proposal.
• The Parliament maintained the European Commission's proposed ceiling of 280Mt for land use and forestry offsets used to compensate for agriculture emissions, rejecting a lower limit of 190Mt suggested by the environment committee.
• The adopted position includes an 'early action reserve' allowing countries lagging behind their 2030 targets to receive up to 90 Mt CO2e in carbon permits from overperforming countries, which may reward past savings rather than new climate actions.

APA

de Jong, F. (2017). European Parliament improves key climate law but fails to close all loopholes. Carbon Market Watch. https://carbonmarketwatch.org/2017/06/14/press-statement-european-parliament-improves-key-climate-law-but-fails-to-close-all-loopholes/

Chicago

de Jong, Femke. European Parliament improves key climate law but fails to close all loopholes. Carbon Market Watch, 2017. https://carbonmarketwatch.org/2017/06/14/press-statement-european-parliament-improves-key-climate-law-but-fails-to-close-all-loopholes/.

Wikipedia

{{cite press release |last1=de Jong |first1=Femke |title=European Parliament improves key climate law but fails to close all loopholes |publisher=Carbon Market Watch |date=14 June 2017 |url=https://carbonmarketwatch.org/2017/06/14/press-statement-european-parliament-improves-key-climate-law-but-fails-to-close-all-loopholes/ |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@misc{dejong2017european, author = {de Jong, Femke}, title = {{European Parliament improves key climate law but fails to close all loopholes}}, publisher = {Carbon Market Watch}, year = {2017}, month = jun, url = {https://carbonmarketwatch.org/2017/06/14/press-statement-european-parliament-improves-key-climate-law-but-fails-to-close-all-loopholes/}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }