“The package leaflet shall finally be more understandable,” according to MEP Peter LIESE, health spokesperson of the EPP group in the European Parliament. Recently, the European Commission published a report on the issue. In the report, the Commission determines that there are problems with the intelligibility of the package leaflet, but without any concrete proposals to solve the problem. “I am very disappointed with that result. In 2012, the Commission committed to present a report in 2013 on how to improve the readability of the package leaflet.
“The EU ETS for aviation must continue in the following years”, said Peter Liese, former rapporteur of the file in the European Parliament ahead of the new Commissions proposal this Friday.
In October last year, the International Civil Aviation Organization ICAO agreed on the principles of the Global Marked Based Mechanisms (CORSIA) to address the CO2 emissions of aviation but Liese said this agreement is not at all satisfactory for the European Parliament: “It is much better than nothing and we should work with the partners on the basis of CORSIA (Carbon Offset and Reduction Scheme for International Aviation) - but it is far away from what is necessary after the global commitment to address climate change in Paris.
First of all, ICAO didn’t agree on any reduction of the emissions, they only talk about carbon neutral growth.
Second, the quality of the offset mechanisms, which they decided upon, is very unclear. It may even not be beneficiary for the environment because we have seen a lot of unsustainable offset credits and even fraud in this area and, third, the agreement is legally very unsafe. It will be somehow binding only from 2027.
Peter Liese: good basis for negotiations with the Parliament. Important to apply same reduction target as for other industries. European Parliament will continue to put pressure on flights to and from third countries. ICAO deal: important step but falls short of efforts made by other sectors and the ambition of the Paris agreement
“The proposal is a solid basis for discussion in the Parliament, but we will examine it very closely and we will, in particular, continue to press for ambitious climate protection for intercontinental flights," said the environmental spokesman of the largest group in the European Parliament (EPP Christian Democrats) Peter Liese on the occasion of today’s Commission proposal about the further inclusion of aviation in the EU emission trading system (ETS).
Read more: New Commission proposal for climate protection in aviation
“It is very good that the European Commission is serious on the principle ‘energy efficiency first’. Energy efficiency is the cost-efficient part of climate mitigation. In the past few years, we spent one billion euros per day on importing fossil fuels. That money should be better spent to our local craftsmen and industry.” This is how Liese as Coordinator in the Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety for the biggest group in the European Parliament, the Christ-democratic EPP, reacted on the proposals of the European Commission, the so-called Winter Package. The Commission proposes to raise the energy efficiency target for 2030 to 30%, besides many other proposals on the future of EU energy and climate policy. The Commission also proposes to extend the main elements of the energy efficiency Directive to 2030 and beyond.