Skip to main content

EU having ‘intense’ discussions over ‘low-carbon mobility’ goals

According to Maroš Šefčovič, the Commission vice-president for the Energy Union, the European Commission is having “very intense discussions” with member states over the individual emissions reduction percentage that they will be assigned to reduce emissions in sectors not covered by the Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS), says Euractiv. Šefčovič devoted substantial attention to the situation in the non-ETS sector and to the issue of ‘low-carbon mobility’, or reducing emissions from transport. The non-ETS se
June 3, 2016 Read time: 2 mins
According to Maroš Šefčovič, the Commission vice-president for the Energy Union, the European Commission is having “very intense discussions” with member states over the individual emissions reduction percentage that they will be assigned to reduce emissions in sectors not covered by the Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS), says Euractiv.

Šefčovič devoted substantial attention to the situation in the non-ETS sector and to the issue of ‘low-carbon mobility’, or reducing emissions from transport. The non-ETS sectors refer to areas not covered by the Scheme for greenhouse gases, which currently covers mainly power generation and energy-intensive industries such as cement, chemicals and steelmaking.

Šefčovič stressed that without breakthroughs in new technologies, research and innovation, it would be a big challenge to achieve global targets for 2030, 2050, and to have a carbon-neutral economy by the end of the century, as EU countries committed to at COP21.

He said that the Pact of Amsterdam approved on 31 May was a very good setting for moving the agenda forward, thanks to bottom-up initiatives and involving mayors, who very much want to be part of this initiative, and NGOs.

The Pact of Amsterdam, which establishes the Urban Agenda for the EU, will focus on a more effective and coherent implementation of existing EU policies in cities in the fields of environment, transport and employment.

According to Šefčovič, under COP21, EU countries need to present their roadmaps for how they plan to achieve their climate goals up to 2050, and that a first stock-taking would take place in 2020. He added that at EU level, the effort-sharing decisions would be adopted before the summer break, in one legislative package on low-carbon mobility.

Šefčovič stated that the European Commission would be working very closely with the member states, once its effort-sharing proposal was on the table.

“Currently we are on a very intense discussion at political and technical level with our member states on what should be the percentage we would offer to each member state by which they would need to reduce GHG emission in non-ETS sector, meaning transport, agriculture and the buildings,” Šefčovič said.

Related Content

  • Kapsch looks to the future
    December 16, 2014
    Colin Sowman reports from a two-day meeting where industry leaders, academics and political advisers presented their thoughts on the future of mobility. Most governments do not dare to introduce tolling systems… they are too frightened.” So said Georg Kapsch in his capacity of chief operating officer of Kapsch TrafficCom, during a forward-looking press event at the company’s headquarters in Vienna.
  • ITF releases projections for modal shares, emissions
    December 4, 2014
    New projections, released today by the International Transport Forum (ITF) at the OECD during the COP20 climate change negotiations in Lima, Peru, highlight a critical choice for policy makers: whether to pursue urbanisation based on public transport or on private transport with cars and two-wheelers. Big cities in China, India and Latin America with over 500,000 inhabitants will more than double their share of world passenger transport emissions by 2050 to 20 per cent (2010: 9 per cent), if current urba
  • Ertico publishes ITS Market Radar report
    February 5, 2024
    Focus includes connected, cooperative & automated mobility, plus sustainability and MaaS
  • Report identifies opportunities for road freight carbon and cost reduction
    December 4, 2012
    Switching from diesel to gas, reducing rolling resistance and aerodynamic drag and introducing more hybrid and electric vehicles are identified as key opportunities for further cutting carbon and improving efficiency in the road freight sector, according to a new report commissioned by the Transport Knowledge Transfer Network (TKTN) and the Low Carbon Vehicle Partnership (LowCVP). The report, written by Ricardo-AEA for the project partners, focuses on the key technical opportunities, and identifies options