Tackling 60% of the EU’s climate problem

The Effort Sharing Decision (ESD) covers approximately 60% of EU greenhouse gas emissions, focusing on sectors like transport, buildings, and agriculture. The document argues that the 2013-2020 targets were too weak, leading to a projected surplus of 600 million tons of CO2-eq by 2020. It recommends that the 2030 framework significantly increase targets to at least 45% below 2005 levels, exclude international offsets, and maintain a separate pillar for land use, land-use change and forestry (LULUCF) to avoid undermining overall climate ambition.

• The Effort Sharing Decision (ESD) is a central piece of EU climate legislation, covering nearly 60% of the EU's total greenhouse gas emissions in sectors not included in the Emissions Trading System (ETS).
• The 2013-2020 ESD targets are considered too weak, with a projected surplus of approximately 600 million tons of CO2-eq by 2020 because many Member States are expected to overachieve their targets through business-as-usual trajectories.
• Current flexibilities are overly generous, allowing international offsets to account for more than 50% of the overall reduction effort, which the document argues delays necessary domestic investments.
• Within the non-ETS sectors, road transport is the largest source of emissions at 34%, followed by household energy use at 19% and agriculture at 17%.
• The LULUCF sector is currently excluded from the EU's 2020 reduction target and should remain in a separate pillar for the 2030 framework due to its annual fluctuations and data uncertainties, which make it unsuitable for the ESD's annual compliance cycle.
• For the 2030 period, the document recommends increasing the non-ETS emission reduction target to at least 45% below 2005 levels and prohibiting the carry-over of any surplus from the 2020 period.
• The brief suggests that the EU should establish binding national energy efficiency targets and new targets for the greenhouse gas intensity of transport fuels to drive actual reductions in the building and transport sectors.

APA

Carbon Market Watch (2014). Tackling 60% of the EU’s climate problem. https://carbonmarketwatch.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/ESD-Policy-Brief-Carbon-Market-Watch_final_WEB.pdf

Chicago

Carbon Market Watch. Tackling 60% of the EU’s climate problem. 2014. https://carbonmarketwatch.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/ESD-Policy-Brief-Carbon-Market-Watch_final_WEB.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=Carbon Market Watch |title=Tackling 60% of the EU’s climate problem |date=May 2014 |url=https://carbonmarketwatch.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/ESD-Policy-Brief-Carbon-Market-Watch_final_WEB.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{carbonmarketwatch2014tackling, author = {{Carbon Market Watch}}, title = {{Tackling 60\% of the EU’s climate problem}}, institution = {Carbon Market Watch}, year = {2014}, month = may, url = {https://carbonmarketwatch.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/ESD-Policy-Brief-Carbon-Market-Watch_final_WEB.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }