European Council must close loopholes in the 2030 climate & energy framework

Carbon Market Watch recommends that the European Council increase the EU's 2030 greenhouse gas reduction target to at least 55% and permanently remove the surplus of over 2.5 billion emissions allowances in the EU ETS. The organization warns that carrying over this surplus could weaken the 40% target to a de facto 33% reduction. It further argues against the use of international offsets due to poor environmental quality and cautions that including land-use, land-use change and forestry (LULUCF) sectors as net sinks would undermine the effectiveness of the GHG target.

• The proposed 40% greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction target for 2030 is considered insufficient to achieve the long-term goal of an 80-95% reduction by 2050. Carbon Market Watch suggests that raising the 2020 target to 35% would enable a domestic target of at least 55% by 2030.
• A surplus of more than 2.5 billion emissions allowances in the EU ETS threatens the 2030 target. If these are carried over to the 2020 trading period, the 40% GHG reduction target could be weakened by up to 7%, resulting in a de facto 33% reduction target.
• The use of international offsets is criticized for undermining EU climate goals and delaying domestic action, potentially leading to 'technological lock-in'. Specifically, it is estimated that the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) may deliver less than 40% of the emissions reductions it sold by 2020, with over two-thirds of offsets coming from business-as-usual energy projects.
• Including the land-use, land-use change and forestry (LULUCF) sectors in the 2030 GHG target is viewed as a risk because these sectors currently act as a net sink in the EU's 28 Member States, which could reduce the necessity for emissions cuts in other critical sectors.
• Joint Implementation (JI) offsets are reported to have very low environmental quality, with over 95% issued without international scrutiny and 90% issued by Russia and Ukraine with limited transparency.

APA

Carbon Market Watch (2014). European Council must close loopholes in the 2030 climate & energy framework. https://carbonmarketwatch.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/Carbon-Market-Watch-European-Council-Recommendations_final.pdf

Chicago

Carbon Market Watch. European Council must close loopholes in the 2030 climate & energy framework. 2014. https://carbonmarketwatch.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/Carbon-Market-Watch-European-Council-Recommendations_final.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite press release |author=Carbon Market Watch |title=European Council must close loopholes in the 2030 climate & energy framework |date=March 2014 |url=https://carbonmarketwatch.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/Carbon-Market-Watch-European-Council-Recommendations_final.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@misc{carbonmarketwatch2014european, author = {{Carbon Market Watch}}, title = {{European Council must close loopholes in the 2030 climate \& energy framework}}, publisher = {Carbon Market Watch}, year = {2014}, month = mar, url = {https://carbonmarketwatch.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/Carbon-Market-Watch-European-Council-Recommendations_final.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }