The Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety and the Committee on Industry, Research and Energy jointly adopted the report drafted by Anne DELVAUX (EPP, BE) and Konrad SZYMAŃSKI (ECR, PL) on a 2030 framework for climate and energy policies.
Investors and industries urgently need a clear long-term framework for EU climate and energy policy with greater levels of certainty, and thus clear price signals, in order to encourage medium- and long-term sustainable investment, reduce the associated risk and take advantage of opportunities on the global market for sustainable technologies.
Targets: a multi-faceted approach based on mutually reinforcing, coordinated and coherent policies and ambitious binding targets for the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions, renewable energy sources and energy efficiency is called for by the Members.
The Commission and the Member States are called upon to:
- take greater advantage of the interactions between these three targets, providing investment certainty, and boosting and strengthening competitiveness and energy security in the EU;
- set a binding EU 2030 target of reducing domestic greenhouse gas emissions by at least 40 %; set a binding EU 2030 energy efficiency target of 40 %; set a binding EU 2030 target of producing at least 30 % of total final energy consumption from renewable energy sources;
- ensure that early agreement on the 2030 framework for climate and energy policies in order for the EU to prepare itself for international negotiations on a new, legally binding international agreement and provide a clear, legally binding framework and targets for making the necessary medium- and long-term investment in emissions reduction, energy efficiency and renewable energy.
Coherence of policy instruments: the 2030 framework for climate and energy policies should incorporate instruments available within EU regional policy in order to achieve the 2030 targets, and that this should include better use of the European Structural and Investment Funds for the development of decentralised renewable energy projects, clean fuel projects in urban and rural areas and energy efficiency projects.
Energy security: on hydraulic fracturing, when coming forward with legislation on hydraulic fracturing, the Commission is called upon to include a mandatory environmental impact assessment for both the exploration and extraction of shale gas and to ensure transparency as regards all data on the chemicals used in the hydraulic fracturing process.
Members proposed appropriate measures within the 2030 framework in order to mobilise stakeholders and the necessary funding as regards the development of CCS technologies in the EU. The Commission is called upon to give more prominence and support to the great offshore wind potential of the North Sea as well as to active forestry.
The EU at the international level: the report called for energy agreements with third countries to be concluded at the EU level and for EU energy policy objectives to be firmly established. Members stressed that the continuation of this policy through the adoption of binding renewable energy targets for 2030 would enable the EU to compete with China, the US, South Korea, Japan and India for technology leadership in tomorrow's markets, even in times of economic constraints. The report insisted on the need to build a coherent financial architecture for climate change. It also called on the Member States and the other parties in the upcoming international negotiations, in anticipation of a potential binding agreement, to address the issue of carbon leakage at the global level.
Lastly, Members called for better coordination between the Council, the Commission and the European External Action Service so that the EU can speak with one voice in international organisations and play a more active role, and have greater influence, in promoting sustainable policies.