Refinitiv Newscasts - EU releases a raft of new climate policy proposals 1

ETS

15/07/2021 12:45

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Source: Reuters

Description: A panel of EU commissioners including European Commission
President Ursula von der Leyen and climate commissioner Frans Timmermans
attend a news conference to present 12 new climate policy proposals, which
together would help the bloc reach its goal of cutting climate-warming
emissions 55% by 2030.
Short Link: https://refini.tv/3hDdTDl

Video Transcript:

>>  BACKGROUND   LAUGHTER  Do we wear masks? >> Yes. >> We can take off our
masks. Yeah.  BACKGROUND  Good afternoon everybody and welcome to the European
Commission's press room. Today, 14th of July, the College of Commissioners
held its weekly meeting this morning and they discussed the package of
proposals linked to delivering on our commitments on the European Green Deal.
President von der Leyen will deliver the readout of the College meeting. She
is accompanied by the Executive Vice President Timmermans and the team of
commissioners involved in this package. President, the floor is yours. >> Yes.
Thank you very much. Let me start by saying that I'm very happy to be back in
a busy classroom to present this package. That's good to see all of you and
I'm delighted to be joined by part of the team who made this package possible.
At the very beginning, many thanks and my respect to Frans as the first
Executive Vice President who is leading the green cluster. To you the
commissioners of what you achieved from Janusz to Adina, Paolo, Kadri,
Virginijus. Thank you very much. This was an enormous effort, but the result
speaks for itself. This group here does represent not only, I think
outstanding knowledge and the excellent teamwork within the commission, but it
also reflects the whole-of-government approach or the whole-of-society,
whole-of-economy approach. This was the message almost exactly two years ago
to the day, it wasn't 16th of July when I put on the table my political
guidelines and in there the core part was the European Green Deal. The
overarching goal was, and of course, is to make Europe the very first climate
neutral continent in the world and to build a new growth strategy to get
there. I remember not everyone agreed at that time and there were very vivid
debate. But now two years on, we have come a long way. We now have a shared
sense of purpose, we have a shared sense of direction, we know where we want
to go and what we need to do to get there. We know, for example, that our
current fossil fuel economy has reached its limits. We know that we have to
move on to a new model, one that is powered by innovation that has clean
energy that is moving towards a circular economy. This is why we set out to
make the climate goal not only a political aspiration, but also a legal
obligation. Thanks to our new European climate law, this is exactly what we
now have in place. Two years ago, we also set out our vision about that
transformation. Today, I'm proud to say that we have made good on our
commitments. Europe is now the very first continent that presents a
comprehensive architecture to meet our climate ambitious. We have the goal,
but now we present the road map to how we're going to get there. Our package
aims to combine the reduction of emissions with measures to preserve nature
and to put jobs and social balance at the heart of this transformation. It
also shows the value that this transformation will generate and how public and
private investment can, and will of course work together to make it a reality.
We should always keep in mind roughly 1/3 of next-generation EU and the
European budget will support green projects, sustainable projects all over
Europe. This is more than 500 billion euros at the European level alone. Then
you have to add the national provisions in the national budgets. This all
gives and we feel it already, we see it certainty and incentives to the
private sector. That they compliment that, for example, through investing in
green bonds that are making our financial system more sustainable. Today, it
is about putting all of that together in an architecture that can drive us to
where we want to go. We have the goals, we have the Climate Law, we have it
all underpinned by investment. Now today it's about the road map. The road map
to our new target of at least minus 55 percent of greenhouse gas emissions
till 2030. >> Which shows carbon pricing as a clear, guiding and market-based
instrument with a social compensation. The principle is simple. Emission of
CO_2 must have a price. A price on CO_2 that incentivizes consumer, producers
and innovators to choose the clean technologies to go towards the clean and
sustainable products. We know that carbon pricing works. Our existing emission
trading system has already helped significantly to reduce emissions in
industry and in power generation. We will strengthen the existing system in
these sector, and we will make emission trading system applicable to aviation
and extend it to the maritime. We need this because we just have to consider
that one single cruise ship alone uses as much CO_2 per day like 80,000 cars.
Then we will build a second ETS, a second ETS on buildings and water
transport, because we all know that buildings today consume 40 percent of the
energy consumption. The road transport emissions have continuously increased,
not decreased, but increased. We must reverse this trend. We must reverse this
trend and we must do it in a fair and in a social way. Let me step back for a
moment from the specific example. If you look at the transformations in
Europe, every transformation we were successful when we combined market-driven
measures with the right social balance. This is at the core of our social
market economy. Therefore, we call it a social market economy. In this spirit,
the climate transition will be accompanied by a social climate fund. This fund
will support income and it will support investments, to tackle energy poverty,
and to cut bills for vulnerable households and small businesses. This is real
support for those that need it most while the pricing is effective. This is
real solidarity between member states and within member states. We are
presenting today the market-based tools and tangible investment complemented
and underpinned by a comprehensive regulatory framework. I will ask my team in
a moment to present the proposals to you, but allow me a few final thoughts.
Europe has always been the continent of scientists and innovators. We cannot
always compete with the sheer size of our competitors, or for example, the
amount of natural resources they have. But we can rely on the most precious
renewable resource in the world and this is our ideas, our ingenuity, our
innovative power of our people. It is this spirit that should give us the
confidence that this generational change is not only realistic, but also
optimistic. We very often talk about taking our destiny in our own hands. This
package, this transition, is the true meaning of that. The more inclusive, the
more successful it is today, the more we will have the freedom to act tomorrow
and the future. >> Over the next days you will hear a lot more details about
the proposals, and the percentages, the acronyms, the allocation fees that go
with them. These details do matter. But so does the bigger picture. Change on
this scale is never easy, even when it's necessary. For that reason there are
some who will say, we should go slower, we should go lower, we should do less.
But when it comes to climate change, doing less or doing nothing, literally
means changing everything. The inferno sent hurricanes. We have seen over the
last few weeks, are only a very small window into what our future could look
like. But by acting now, when we still have the policy choices, we can do
things another way. We can build our future by design, and choose a better, a
healthier, and a more prosperous way for the future. I'm deeply convinced that
my team is deeply convinced that this is our generational task, and it must
unite us. It must encourage us. Because this is about securing the wellbeing,
not only of our generation, but also of our children and of our grandchildren.
I think there is no greater and no more noble task than that, and Europe is
ready to lead the way. Now, I would like to give the floor to the first
Executive Vice President Frans Timmermans who is in charge of the overall
green cluster in the European Green Deal. Thanks. Please. >> Thank you very
much, president. Let me start by thanking you. All my colleagues here,
president, and the other ones who are not here. Especially the commission
staff, for an incredible effort, over the last couple of months. This is
really epic. What our colleagues were able to offer us in terms of quality, in
terms of depth, in terms of analysis. I believe we now have a package, that
can take us to our goal which is now a legal obligation of reducing our
emissions with at least 55 percent by 2030, which would set us on a path of
climate neutrality by 2050. As the president said, there is no time to waste.
People are dying in Northwest Canada because it's 50 degrees Celsius there.
Northwest Canada. Siberia reaches temperatures over 35 degrees. Central Europe
is over 40 degrees. We saw tornadoes in the Czech Republic. Who would ever
thought of that? Anyone who wants to deny the urgency of the climate crisis
should look again. We certainly don't have the luxury of denying it. As the
president said, sometimes people say, "Well, take it easy. Not that much. It's
difficult. It's hard." Yes, it is difficult. Yes, it is hard. But it's also an
obligation because if we would renounce our obligation, to help humanity live
within planetary boundaries, we would fail not just ourselves, but we would
fail our children and our grandchildren, who in my view, if we don't fix this,
will be fighting wars over water and food. That is, in my view, the background
of our efforts. But these efforts are very concrete. They have two things at
the same time; put a price on carbon, and put a premium on decarbonizing. That
is, in fact, what we're doing. We're putting a price on carbon so that people
have the incentive to use less carbon, and we put a premium on decarbonizing
so that we stimulate innovation, adaptation, we stimulate the bringing to the
market of new technologies, etc., that will take us to where we need to be.
There is the famous quote in Hamlet. >> "Time is out of joint o cursed spite
that ever I was born to set it right." That's it. Time is out of joint because
humanity no longer lives within planetary boundaries. We were born to
contribute to set it right, that is to help humanity learn to live within
planetary boundaries. If we get to minus 55 in 2030 and climate neutrality in
2050, humanity has a fighting chance. Because the rest of the world is
watching us, is following us, and is really looking towards us for the best
examples to get us there. Thank you president. >> Thank you very much
[inaudible 02:56:15]. Now, I would like to give the floor to the Kadri Simson,
the Commissioner for Energy. >> Thank you President and thank you France for
your leadership. Reaching the Green Deal goals will not be possible without
reshaping our energy system. This is where the most of the emissions are
generated and where change needs to happen first to make it possible
elsewhere. By 2050, most of our energy has to come from renewable sources. As
you know, planning and building energy infrastructure takes time, so to get to
Net Zero by mid-century, we need an unprecedented transformation during this
decade already. The steady renewables evolution in recent years and decades
must become a revolution. With our proposal to revise the renewable energy
directive, we're making that possible. Renewable electricity has by now become
the cheapest option in many places and often it's European companies and
European technology providing the Green Power. By pushing our 2030 renewables
target to 40 percent, we are not only promoting cleaner and cheaper, energy
production, we are also boosting an economic sector with remarkable potential
to create jobs, growth, and trade. With renewable energy as a dashing but
protagonist of the Green Deal, energy-efficiency is the unsung hero without
whom I think wouldn't actually happen. Everything we are presenting today will
become impossible or at least very difficult if we do not reduce the amount of
energy we consume. Being more efficient will immediately cut our emissions,
ease the pressure on the environment, and reduce the need for energy and other
resources to support our way of life. Energy-efficiency not only enables green
transition, it also makes us some possible to reach [inaudible 02:58:28]
transition. Increasing our efficiency allows us to slash energy bills and
tackle energy poverty. This is why we are proposing to upgrade our Energy
Efficiency Directive. Change of this scale is never easy. Today's proposals
will require serious efforts from all member states and from our businesses
and societies. But being cleaner, smarter, and faster also brings huge
opportunities that we should be quick to grasp. Thank you. >> Thank you Kadri.
Paolo Gentiloni for the Economy. >> Yes. I don't know if I should stay. Good
afternoon. Thank you. >> If only you feel comfortable. >> Thank you,
President. We are very proud of the leading role of the EU, and I think today
we are confirming this leading role. Of course, early movers have advantages
but are also facing risks. The risk here is what we call the carbon leakage.
The fact that you have a production shifting towards countries where standards
are lower, or on the contrary, imports with higher content of emissions
entering in our markets. For this reason, we are introducing this carbon
border adjustment mechanism. We are doing it gradually, with the full
compatibility with WTO rules. We are putting the same price to domestic
production and to imports. >> This will be premier at international level, and
this means that also we are ready to try to find a balance between our
ambition and the necessity of global cooperation because you need ambition,
but also global cooperation to have results from this point of view. CBAM as
we call it is not a tax, it's an environmental measure, but we know you need
also taxes to influence positively our behavior, and this is why we are
reviewing our energy taxation directive. It is 20 years old, it is still
financing subsidizing fossil fuels, and we have to cancel exemptions for
fossil fuels and change the method of the energy taxation directive. We will
not as base for taxation the volume of fuels, but their energy content. Of
course, we will have from this contribution exactly to do what we are looking
for to put a price to carbon emissions and to incentivize positive evolutions.
Thank you. >> Thank you, Paolo. Alina Valean now for the transport. >> Thank
you, Madam President. I'm putting forward three proposal for transport; refill
aviation, fuel yearly return, and alternative fuels infrastructure regulation.
All present ticket to economic growth. They will create a market for
sustainable alternative fuels and put in place the right infrastructure to get
zero emission vehicles on our streets and in our seas and skies. I prepared a
couple of figures for you today. Transport is to their source of 29 percent of
the EU total greenhouse gas emissions. By 2050, we need to cut by 90 percent.
As we speak, sustainable alternative fuels in aviation account for less than
0.1 percent of total EU jet fuel consumption. Our goal is to go up to five
percent in 2030. Five percent might seem modest, but it means multiplying the
quantity used by 50 in less than 10 years. In shipping, fossil fuels still
account for over 99 percent of the fuel mix. By 2035, we want 13 percent
reduction in the greenhouse gas intensity of energy used on board ships. Road
transport has the advantage that it started decarbonization earlier. But 20
percent of all greenhouse emissions still come from our roads. Zero emission
cars and lorries are already a reality. But so is the lack of infrastructure
to recharge or refuel them. We want charging capacity equivalent to around
16.3 million points by 2050. Finally, for hydrogen, we need one refueling
station every 150 kilometers along the 20 network and in every urban node on
the 10th day. These proposals will it take us beyond greening morbidity. This
is a chance to make the EU lead market for cutting edge technologies. Studies
show that 92 percent of the sustainable aviation fuels could be produced in
Europe. For example, creating more than 200,000 jobs in the renewable energy
sector. Thank you very much. >> Thank you very much, [inaudible 03:04:13] for
the agriculture, please. >> Thank you, Madam President. This a very important
part of the package adopted today is forestry strategy very important
document. Forests play critical role in many priorities of the Green Deal.
Forests are very important for climate adaptation and climate mitigation. The
keyword used in this strategy is multifunctionality. This is very important
that our approach is respecting their own functions which our forests play
that is very important to mention, because there was a lot of concerns that
the forestry strategy will be, first of all, forest protection. Yes, this is
very important for the environment to protect our forest, to avoid the process
of deforestation of the European Union. But we respect all functions of our
forests. The economic functions, as a wood industry. >> Forests are very
important for this and as a place of work, hundreds, thousands of workers in
the forestry sector. They're also the social aspects like the forests can be
the tourism place of rest for our citizens. Very important this link between
the forest strategy and the Common Agricultural Policy finalized as a
political agreement two weeks ago. We have instruments for improvement of our
forest management in the Common Agricultural Policy, which are eco schemes. We
propose in the recommendation sent to the member states that agroforestry and
joining the farming and agricultural practices, and forestry practices is very
important. Also, carbon farming as a potential echo schemes. We spent in the
last financial period, €6.7 billion for forestry in budget. Now the idea
is to spend more and encouraging farmers, forestry owners for improvement
their practices. First of all, afforestation and avoid the deforestation and
better management of our forests. Thank you. >> Thank you very much.
[inaudible 03:06:59] for the environment, fisheries, and oceans. >> Thank you
very much and good afternoon to everyone. Let me put a little bit more
emphasis on forests. I'm very proud that today together with the Fit for 55
package, we have a forest strategy because forests play a vital role. We're
talking today about legislation, and important changes but also we're not
forgetting about forests, which are huge carbon sinks. Also they host a huge
resources of biodiversity. Most important with our strategy that we aim at
protecting our old-growth and primary forests, but also restore those
degradated ecosystems which due to increased pressure, also due to climate
change, unfortunately, we are losing here in EU. But most importantly, that
we're building in resilience or the multifunctionality, what my colleague
Janusz mentioned, can be only maintained if our forests are resilient to
climate change and future shocks. Therefore, we will also roll out a very
positive and engaging initiative of planting three billion trees around EU.
Not all trees planted can be called forests and that's why we will go a step
ahead looking at specific areas, specific species which can be planted and
create the forest of the future. That we will do with, of course, enhance
cooperation with our member-state, building on their best practices. Thank
you. >> Thank you very much to all the [inaudible 03:08:41]. Now the Executive
Vice President and the commissioners present on stage will present you the
building blocks of these proposals over the next two days so you will have
plenty of opportunities to ask questions to them. The President will be now
available to take a few questions. I will try to make a mixture of questions
from the press room and from the colleagues, the many of them almost 200 who
are connected remotely. I will start in the order in which I have them on the
list with a question from Honor-Gelin, a quiz in the middle. Thank you >> I
don't know if I remember how to use this microphone in the press room anymore.
Thank you for the question. A question in German to the President, if I may.
 FOREIGN  The question to Vice President, First Vice President Timmermans, if
I may, where do you suspect the fiercest resistance to your plans? >>
 FOREIGN   FOREIGN  >> For her ponderous. NOISE  >> We said the process is
provable. Say Julie Mazu actually edited tUnassignhe movement of molecules.
From the norm. The Bernoulli's little refused to play detective work with the
feature. >> What we do explicitly is, that we acknowledge that today it is
already difficult for some people to pay their energy bills or their mobility
bills, for example, to drive, and that we give, first of all, an answer to
that open question, by first of all putting in place the social climate fund.
It is tailored specifically to address that question. The social climate fund
will not only be direct income support for small incomes, but it also will go
into investments in innovation, so that, for example, the market for electric
vehicles becomes broader and as you know, if the demand rises and the supply
rises, the prices tend to go down that is good. Or for example, that heating
systems that are modern become more affordable and will be installed in
housing, or we have the strong renovation wave that is financed by Next
Generation EU. This will be first of all in place, we have Next Generation EU,
then overlapping the social climate fund will come. Only then, we start to
build the emission trading system, the price on carbon, for road transport and
housing, so that we have always an answer for those who have a hard time to
adapt because of a small income, but overall, we don't lose the perspective
for our common goal to reduce carbon. In the very end, carbon is damaging in a
way, our climate and our environment, and those who suffer the most from that,
are always those with the smallest income. It's in our overall common
interest, to support those with the smallest income, but also to show them the
way as a society, how we can improve the situation of housing, of mobility
while preserving our nature. >> Thank you very much. This concludes the
college readout. I thank all the members of the college present on stage, but
stay with us because in a few minutes Executive Vice-President Timmermans and
Commissioner Simson will hold a press conference to present one of the
building blocks of this package. Just bear with us for a few minutes to change
the setting and stay tuned, and thank you. >> Adopt me semi messy book