Fit for 55, the ecology roadmap in the EEA

The vice-president of the European commission Frans Timmermanns defended the European climate protection plan in Strasbourg. Foto: © European Union 2022 / Source - European Parliament

(Alexandre Binder) – “Fit for 55”, this is a package of propositions which target the reduction of greenhouse gases in 2030 by 55%, compared to the year 1990. This package is manly proposing the revision of the European Trading system (ETS). Initially, the ETS (SEQE in French) was designed to reduce the emissions of greenhouse gases in the EEA. However, today, the MEPs want to change the ETS to abolish free emission quotas. “25 billion euros per year is the profit that big companies are making in Europe when they sell free emission quotas they can spare”, says Damien Carême, MEP of the Greens group in the European parliament.

ETS is a system that provides free emission quotas to certain industries. Once a company exceeds the assigned quota, it must buy such quotas from other companies. As an example, 83% of aviation allowances are free, and provided by the industry activity, 3% is placed in a reserve and 15% is auctioned, which means that aviation companies are paying for only 15% of their emissions. But, if they don’t use their full quota, they can sell the remainder to other polluting companies. What a wonderful source of profit to sell legally something acquired for free.

The European Commission proposition is to reduce the number of free emissions granted to aviation companies every year by a quarter to reach full auctioning by 2027. The commission has arrived at a proposition for the aviation industry, but the situation is still not clear regarding automotive companies and other industries. “We must give industries a clear signal, in order to allow companies to make plans”, insists Frans Timmermans, vice-president of the European commission.

After one day of debate and deliberation, the MEPs still haven’t reached a clear road map. They have sent back a series of propositions to review, especially regarding the reduction of free emission quotas granted to some industries. There is still a lot of work to be done and, as MEPs said, “no country can be a free rider”.

The fact that the European parliament was not able to vote a major package during this plenary week in Strasbourg is not a surprise. However, the fact that the Greens and the extreme right voted together is astonishing. Is this the sign of a new Europe capable of gathering all forces for mutual progress?