"We are on the verge of adopting the biggest climate protection law of all time," stated the environmental policy spokesperson of the largest political group in the European Parliament and rapporteur for the European emissions trading, EPP MEP Peter Liese. Today, on Monday, the European Parliament will discuss a legislative package and vote on the relevant texts tomorrow, on Tuesday. The topic is emissions trading, which covers so far not only energy-intensive industry, power generation and aviation, but will also include maritime transport in the future. A separate ETS 2 will further cover road transport and heat generation, i.e., heating of buildings and process heat in industry. With its extension to maritime transport, the existing ETS alone will accomplish 25 times as much CO2 savings by 2030 as the controversial regulation on CO2 emissions from cars.
Read more: Biggest climate protection law of all time is about to be passed
On Wednesday, the European Commission presented its proposal on so-called “green claims”. If a company claims that their product or service is in particular good for the environment, for example, that it is carbon neutral or uses 50% of recycled content, this should be sustained by appropriate evidence.
Peter Liese, environmental spokesperson for the largest group in the European Parliament (EPP, Christian Democrats) welcomed the proposal: “It is very important that if you claim that you product or service is environment friendly, you also have some evidence for this. It is important that consumers can easily identify environment and climate friendly products and be sure that these claims are true. The proposal will not only fight greenwashing but also harmonise the oversupply of about 230 ‘green’ labels currently found on the European market. This will benefit those companies that are actually moving in the right direction. Generally, I am very happy that the proposal is not over-bureaucratic. It would not be a good idea if a small or medium sized company had to hire consultants or pay high amounts of money to lawyers just to clarify that they do something that is positive but quite obvious,” said Liese. In an earlier draft, the Commission proposal was much more sophisticated and companies would have had a lot of bureaucratic burden.
Next Tuesday, the European Parliament is facing a historic decision. After more than ten years of discussion, shipping is to be included in the EU’s emissions trading system. The European Parliament, the representatives of the Member States and the Commission already agreed on the details at the end of last year. "Ships often use very dirty fuels, the so-called 'bunker fuels', which can be considered as waste in the refineries. Since there are also hardly any effective gas cleaning systems, this is not only a problem for the climate, but also for air quality in cities along rivers or coastal cities. Although far-reaching measures have been implemented to reduce emissions from cars, cities sometimes fail to meet air quality standards because ships spoil the balance. For ten years, the European Parliament has thus been fighting for the inclusion of shipping in emissions trading," explained Peter Liese, environmental policy spokesman for the largest group in the European Parliament (EPP, Christian Democrats) and rapporteur for the reform of emissions trading system (ETS).
“The EU institutions' decision to phase out the internal combustion engine is and remains wrong. Politics should only set targets and not ban certain technologies. Climate-neutral e-fuels should be part of the solution,” affirmed the environmental policy spokesperson of the largest group in the European Parliament (EPP, Christian Democrats) Peter Liese. Nevertheless, Liese massively criticised the approach of the German Federal Minister for Transport Volker Wissing and the German Liberals: “Mr Wissing and the Liberals in the government have agreed to the combustion engine phase-out three times at European level. Firstly, in June in the Council of Ministers; secondly, in October after the trilogue, when Wissing literally stated that he welcomed the EU's decision to phase out the internal combustion engine1; and thirdly, in November, when the German government agreed to the compromise in the Committee of the Permanent Representatives to the EU after consulting the Ministry of Transport. The current uproar is not justified by a change of facts, but is a purely political manoeuvre after the disastrous election result in Berlin for the FDP. This is not the way to do politics in Europe. The damage goes far beyond environmental and climate policy. In the future, every member state will be able to call everything into question again after the negotiations have been concluded and after it has been agreed several times. This can affect Germany massively, because we depend much more on a functioning European Union, especially a functioning internal market, than other member states.”
Read more: Peter Liese on the dispute over the phase-out of the combustion engine