Greenhouse gas emissions, climate change: mechanism for monitoring and reporting

The Committee on Environment, Public Health and Food Safety adopted the report by Bas EICKHOUT (Greens/EFA, NL) on the proposal for a regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council on a mechanism for monitoring and reporting greenhouse gas emissions and for reporting other information at national and Union level relevant to climate change.

The parliamentary committee recommends that the position of the European Parliament adopted at first reading under the ordinary legislative procedure should be to amend the Commission’s proposal as follows:

Purpose and scope: the mechanism should permit the monitoring and reporting of black carbon emissions, while the Regulation should apply to the Union’s and Member States´actions to reduce non-CO2 climate-relevant anthropogenic emissions, taking into account the European Parliament resolution of 14 September 2011 on a comprehensive approach to non-CO2 climate-relevant anthropogenic emissions.

The Union’s system for monitoring and reporting emissions: in order to ensure the consistency between the various objectives of climate- and energy-related measures, members propose to extend the provisions relating to reporting and monitoring to also include the share of energy from renewable sources, or reduce the gross final consumption of energy. The reporting under this Regulation should also draw from information received from Member States based on the implementation of Directive 2009/28/EC on the promotion of the use of energy from renewable sources and the Directive 2012/.../EU of the European Parliament and of the Council on energy efficiency.

Low-carbon development strategies: the Cancun Agreements (Decision 1/CP.16) require that developed countries elaborate low-carbon development strategies or plans. This aspect is included in the Commission’s proposal which requires Member States that elaborate and implement strategies so as to reach the long-term climate target. According to Members, these strategies should be spatially resolved/specified as well as consistent with a cost-efficient trajectory towards the long-term climate target, i.e. domestic emission reductions of at least 40 % by 2030 and 60 % by 2040 compared to 1990 levels.

Member States and the Commission should review and, if appropriate, update their respective low-carbon development strategies at least every five years.

Reporting climate-relevant emissions from maritime transport: maritime transport is a sector of crucial importance at a global level in terms of greenhouse gas emissions. Given the lack of data currently available, Members consider that the Regulation should apply to climate-relevant information relating to marine vessels calling at Member States’seaports.

Requirements for monitoring and reporting should be adopted in a manner which is complementary and consistent with any requirements agreed at the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) or with requirements applied to vessels as determined in the context of the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) or through a Union measure addressing GHG emissions from maritime transport.

These requirements should cover ships responsible for significant emissions, including at least tankers, bulker, general cargo and container ships, subject to appropriate de minimis size and traffic.

Use of satellite data: space-based data should be considered as essential monitoring tools for the Union and the Member States due to their capacity to improve the overall picture of CO2 and CH4 emissions, as well as land use, land use change and forestry (LULUCF).

To that end, the report recommends that the Global Monitoring for Environment and Security (GMES) programme and other satellite systems be used to the maximum extent to provide timely emission reporting (global daily measurement of CO2 and CH4 man-made and rural emissions as well as of CO2 sinks) and independent verifications of the calculated emission reports. This Regulation should enable such estimates to be prepared in the shortest timeframes possible by using statistical and other information.

Commission reporting on financial support and technology transfer to developing countries: the Commission should report to the European Parliament and to the Council, by 15 March each year, on financial support and technology transfer to developing countries through the Union budget, instruments and funds, in particular the Climate and Biodiversity Fund.

Members also emphasise the importance of communicating information on the sources of private sector funding for climate in developing countries.