The EU Climate Policy after the Climate Package and Copenhagen - Promises and Limits. Egmont Paper No. 38, September 2010

This paper aims to provide a global assessment of the European Union’s climate change policy after the Climate Package and Copenhagen. In order to do so, the paper firstly describes the climate threats for Europe as well as the birth and objectives of the EU climate and energy package adopted in 2009. Then, the different components of this package are highlighted: the EU Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS), the obligations of the non-ETS sectors, the 20% renewable energy objective, the promotion of carbon capture and storage and the framework on environmental subsidies. Thirdly, the other EU climate policy legislations are examined, comprising: energy efficiency, the GHG emissions of cars, the GHG emissions of fuels, and the Strategic Energy Technology Plan (SET-Plan). Next, adaptation to climate change is discussed, before examining the international aspects of the EU actions after Copenhagen. As a way of conclusion, the paper assesses the EU climate policy throughout four main questions: What has the EU achieved until now? What will be the costs? What will be the impact on the European Union? And, is the EU action sufficient

Legislating on car emissions : what drives standards in EU environmental policy?

The working paper examines the decision-making process of what has most likely been the most contentious European environmental policy-item in 2009: the regulation 443/2009 setting carbon dioxide emission performance standards for new passenger cars. In contrast to the empirical trend of rather stringent protection levels, where environmental front-runner countries, encouraged by the Commission and the European Parliament, are able to set the pace, the regulation in question was largely shaped by the most reluctant member state – Germany with its high-volume, premium car manufacturers. By process-tracing the legislative decision-making, the paper accounts for this lowest-common-denominator outcome. Commission and EP had “greener” preferences than the Council. Yet, both actors suffered from a of lack internal consistency, with national differences leading to strong in-fights between Commissioners and limiting the voting coherence of EP party-groups. The issue was therefore already highly politicized at the agenda-setting stage. This, and the fact that the dossier was handled in a fast-track procedure, curtailed Commission influence. In the Council negotiations, Germany was able to muster a potential blocking minority together with those, mostly east-European countries, were subsidiaries of German car companies are located. “Greener” member states were, however, not prepared to veto down the regulation although they criticized its lack of ambition

Greening of Industries in the EU: Anticipating and Managing the Effects on Quantity and Quality of Jobs

[Excerpt] All jobs will be affected as the EU moves to a green economy: new jobs will be created and some will be eliminated, but most existing jobs will be transformed. To ensure a socially responsible transition towards high-quality green jobs, concerted efforts by governments, employees, employers and other stakeholders are crucial in anticipating and managing this process. The research carried out in this study examined green business practices and greening processes aimed at mitigating climate change – if radical mitigation measures are not taken in time, adaptation could eventually prove impossible. The study had two main objectives: to provide an overview at both sectoral and cross-sectoral level in the EU of the effects of greening on the quantity and quality of jobs in 10 sectors (automotive, chemicals, construction, distribution and trade, energy, furniture, non- metallic materials, shipbuilding, textiles and transport); to analyse good practice examples of the anticipation and management of green change at company level in these sectors

Modelling Malta’s road transport system to evaluate carbon dioxide emissions and the biofuel potential : a tool for policy-making

The Maltese road transport sector accounts for a significant part of Malta’s annual CO2 emissions. Like all EU member states, Malta has a number of obligations emanating from the 2020 Climate and Energy Package, including a target of 10% renewable energy (RE) share in transport [1] as well as a ceiling of +5% GHG emissions by 2020 (reference 2005) for sectors covered by the effort sharing decision (ESD) [2]. In order to assess which policy measures are best suited to enable Malta to meet these targets a model was devised which projects future fuel demand to determine the amount of CO2 released as well as the quantity of biofuel necessary to meet the RE target. The aim of this study was to analyse the parameters which determine fuel consumption by road transport in Malta with particular focus on private road transport, and integrate these in a model to project the fuel energy consumption and associated CO2 released by this sector in 2020. The study then superimposes the effect of biofuel blending on the net CO2 inventory for passenger cars and concludes that even if the average passenger transport demand keeps growing at a rate of 1.97% per year (average for 2005-2011), the net CO2 emissions by this sector would still fall below their 2011 levels under all six scenarios.Bajada New Energy, General Membrane, EcoGroup, Econetique, Energy Investment, JMV Vibro Blocks, Solar Engineering, Solar Solutionspeer-reviewe

ENVIRONMENTAL TAXES AS INSTRUMENTS IN THE ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION POLICY OF THE EUROPEAN UNION – SPECIAL EMPHASIS ON THE ECOLOGICAL COMPONENT DURING TAXATION OF MOTOR VEHICLES

Environmental protection is one of the basic priorities of modern states. The CO2 emissions from motor vehicles are one of the main environmental threats. Ecological taxes have an important role to play in the commitment for reducing CO2 emissions. The vehicle taxation system is very different between the member states of the European Union, with an accentuated complexity within each country, based on the environmental and energy characteristics of the vehicles. This paper aims to analyze the system of taxation of motor vehicles within the legal systems of the member states of the European Union, with special emphasis on the legal framework of the Republic of North Macedonia, and its environmental and fiscal implications

Impacts of CO2 Mandates for New Cars in the European Union

CO2 emissions mandates for new light-duty passenger vehicles have recently been adopted in the European Union (EU), which require steady reductions to 95 g CO2/km in 2021. Using a computable general equilibrium (CGE) model, we analyze the impact of the mandates on oil demand, CO2 emissions, and economic welfare, and compare the results to an emission trading scenario that achieves identical emissions reductions. We find that the mandates lower oil expenditures by about €6 billion, but at a net added cost of €12 billion in 2020. Emissions from transport are about 50MtCO2 lower with the vehicle emission standards, but with the economy-wide emission trading, lower emissions in transport allow an equal increase in emissions elsewhere in the economy. We estimate that tightening CO2 standards further after 2020 would cost the EU economy an additional €24–63 billion in 2025 compared with achieving the same reductions with an economy-wide emission trading system.The paper benefitted from comments of participants on an earlier draft of the paper presented at a workshop on the EU fuels standards held in Brussels on February 26, 2015, organized by General Motors. The MIT Joint Program on the Science and Policy of Global Change, where the authors are affiliated, is supported by the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Science under grants DE-FG02-94ER61937, DE-FG02-08ER64597, DE-FG02-93ER61677, DE-SC0003906, DE-SC0007114, XEU-0-9920-01; the U.S. Department of Energy, Oak Ridge National Laboratory under Subcontract 4000109855; the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency under grants XA-83240101, PI-83412601-0, RD-83427901-0, XA-83505101-0, XA-83600001-1, and subcontract UTA12-000624; the U.S. National Science Foundation under grants AGS-0944121, EFRI-0835414, IIS-1028163, ECCS-1128147, ARC-1203526, EF-1137306, AGS-1216707, and SES-0825915; the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration under grants NNX06AC30A, NNX07AI49G, NNX11AN72G and Sub Agreement No. 08-SFWS-209365.MIT; the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration under grants 06-C-NE-MIT, 09-C-NE-MIT, Agmt. No. 4103-30368; the U.S. Department of Transportation under grant DTRT57-10-C-10015; the Electric Power Research Institute under grant EP-P32616/C15124, EP-P8154/C4106; the U.S. Department of Agriculture under grant 58-6000-2-0099, 58-0111-9-001; and a consortium of 35 industrial and foundation sponsors (for the complete list see: http://globalchange.mit.edu/sponsors/all)

Opportunities and risks for CO2 intense sectors in Turkey

The Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) is an independent not-for-profit organization holding the largest database of primary corporate climate change information in the world. Over 3,000 organizations in some 60 countries now disclose their greenhouse gas emissions, water management and climate change strategies through CDP, in order that they can set reduction targets and make performance improvements. This data is gathered on behalf of institutional investors, purchasing organizations and government bodies, then, made available to CDP signatories for integration into business and policy decision-making. Since its formation in 2000, CDP has become the gold standard for carbon disclosure methodology and process, providing essential climate change data to the global market place. Since the beginning of the year 2010, Turkey is included in Carbon Disclosure Project with the support of Akbank and Ernst & Young-Turkey. The project is managed and controlled by Sabanci University Corporate Governance Forum, which has become a centre of expertise on corporate disclosure over the years. 50 companies, which constitute the Istanbul Stock Exchange’s ISE-50 index, have been invited by CDP Turkey in the year of 2010 to disclose climate change related information,10 of those companies responded to CDP’s invitation and presented their carbon emission levels and risk management strategies to international investors through the CDP platform. Additionally one company joined the CDP voluntarily. In the year 2011, the invitation is extended to 100 companies constituting Istanbul Stock Exchange’s ISE-100 index. A total of 17 ISE 100 companies responded to CDP, including two ISE 100 firms whose international parent companies answered the questionnaire on their behalf. In addition, there are three voluntary responses outside the ISE 100 sample, which increased the number of direct CDP responses from Turkish companies to 20. In 2012, CDP Turkey aims to enlarge its scope to cover both listed and non-listed firms in carbon intense industries through voluntary disclosure in collaboration with sector organizations. This report discusses the conditions in CO2 intense sectors of Turkey, in terms of market conditions, current & potential regulatory risks and opportunities. The first sections of the report elaborate on comparative GHG emission trends in Turkey. The second section lays down leading firms in the largest industries and the most CO2 intensive sectors in Turkey. The third section draws attention to the market dynamics in carbon intense industries. And the last section, points out risks and potential opportunities for those industries, including EC legislation and initiatives to transform consumption and production patterns

Decarbonizing Transport in the European Union: Emission Performance Standards and the Perspectives for a European Green Deal

The transport sector is a major driver of climate change both globally and in the European Union (EU). While the EU as a whole is showing declining carbon emissions, transport-related emissions are higher than in 1990. Car traffic is responsible for around 12 percent of the EU’s total greenhouse gas emissions. EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen underlined the efforts to strengthen the decarbonization of the EU at the end of 2019 by publishing the European Green Deal (EGD) communication. In this paper, we analyze the controversy surrounding the emission performance standards for cars adopted in spring 2019. Car manufacturers must reduce the average carbon emissions of their fleets by 37.5% between 2021 and 2030. In this respect, the new emission performance standards are more ambitious than the previous ones. However, our argument is that without a major shift in the balance of power, extensive decarbonization and a departure from car-centered transport development will not be possible. Therefore, it is crucial for mobility research to critically engage with lobbying power in the EU and with concepts such as environmental leadership, which often underexpose the structural power of incumbent actors and existing path dependencies