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

  • Best laid plans
    March 22, 2012
    Colossal is not too bold a word to describe the scale of ITS developments currently under way in Europe. The European Commission’s ITS Action Plan has six areas of focus, each of which expands out into numerous projects involving a lot of leg work by various committees, working groups or consultants. Add to that the supporting work and research efforts of the many parts of Ertico (ITS Europe); plus each of the 27 European Union member states is working on ‘transition’ of the EU’s ITS Directive into their ow
  • The Institute of Engineering and Technology discusses future UK rollout of Low Carbon Vehicles
    October 22, 2012
    Delegates to the ITS World Congress will have a superb opportunity of getting to know the Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET), Europe’s largest professional society of engineers and technicians with over 150,000 members in 127 countries around the world. The organisation is holding a drinks reception on Wednesday from 16.30 on Stand D71 (the ITS UK stand) during which delegates will be able to find out about the latest developments from the IET Transport Sector that provides a focal point to acc
  • EU road fatalities fall by 11% in 2010
    April 20, 2012
    The European Commission has published new statistics showing that EU road fatalities decreased by 11 per cent in 2010. However, country by country statistics show that the number of deaths still varies greatly across the EU. Most countries achieved double-digit reductions in the number of road deaths over the past year, including Luxembourg (33%), Malta (29%) Sweden (26%) and Slovakia (26%).
  • ASECAP report details division of concession risks in EU
    April 1, 2015
    ASECAP, the association of European tolling companies, has published a report which outlines the challenges facing authorities and tolling companies in the European Union in complying with the Directives 2014/23/EU and 2014/24/EU. The new directives come into force in April 2016 and refine and strengthen the definition of a concession and establish procurement rules for contracting authorities in respect of public contracts. One of the key areas in defining a concession is that the concessionaire must b