Today, the European Commission adopted a package of proposals to make the EU’s climate, energy, land use, transport and taxation policies fit for reducing net greenhouse gas emissions by at least 55% by 2030, compared to 1990 levels. Achieving these emission reductions in the next decade is crucial to Europe becoming the world’s first climate-neutral continent by 2050 and making the European Green Deal a reality. With today’s proposals, the Commission is presenting the legislative tools to deliver on the targets agreed in the European Climate Law and fundamentally transform our economy and society for a fair, green and prosperous future. The adopted proposals are connected and complementary, thus, they include, among others, an application of emissions trading to new sectors and a tightening of the existing EU Emissions Trading System by decreasing the overall emission cap even further which will increase its annual rate of reduction. The Commission has also proposed to phase out free emission allowances for aviation and align with the global Carbon Offsetting and Reduction Scheme for International Aviation (CORSIA) and to include shipping emissions for the first time in the EU ETS. In regards to the energy supply, the adopted package promotes an increased use of RES which derives from the Renewable Energy Directive and sets an increased target of 40% energy production from renewable energy sources. To implement this goal, all Member States shall set specific targets and sustainability criteria in transport, heating and cooling, buildings and industry. Moreover, the Energy Efficiency Directive promotes ambitious binding annual targets aiming at reducing the energy use at EU level. This shall be achieved by the targets established by national contributions, which will proactively provide the annual energy saving outcome. Furthermore, a combination of measures in transport sector will be enhanced by the infrastructure and fuels goals in order to support them. To ensure that the aforementioned goal will be achieved, the package expands the charging capacity in line with zero-emission car sales. An alignment of taxation policies with the European Green Deal objectives means promotion of clean technologies and removing outdated exemptions and reduced rates that currently encourage the use of fossil fuels. One more adopted target is introduced by putting a carbon price on imports of a targeted selection of products to ensure that there are ambitious climate action measures to prevent carbon leakage. Lastly, the Commission proposed tools to preserve and grow our natural carbon sinks.
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