What’s next in Europe? – Timeline of European climate and energy policy

After technical negotiations in January, the Council, Parliament and Commission are set to continue political talks on the planned climate law. Critical issues are a proposed expert council on climate, and the 2030 greenhouse gas reduction target.

Barendt Leyts, European Council, Thomas Haahr, European Parliament

At their meeting in December 2020, EU leaders agreed to return to details of how to implement a new 2030 target before the Commission publishes the bulk of its "Fit for 55 package" by June. "The European Council will return to the matter and adopt additional guidance in time before the Commission puts forward its proposals. The future of the Effort Sharing Regulation will be tackled on this occasion," read the conclusions. So, leaders could debate it at this meeting. This is one of four regular meetings of EU heads of state and government as the European Council. It is set to be the first meeting under the Portuguese EU Council presidency.

The European Commission will invite stakeholders to talk about green taxation, i.e. also the carbon border tax plans. It can be assumed that the Commission will have worked out details for several options of how to introduce such a mechanism by this date, an EU official told Clean Energy Wire.

Informal meeting of EU energy ministers

The Portuguese EU Council presidency invites EU energy ministers for an informal meeting.

Portuguese Presidency of the Council of the European Union

Informal meeting of EU environment ministers

The Portuguese EU Council presidency invites EU environment ministers for an informal meeting.

Portuguese Presidency of the Council of the European Union

Informal meeting of heads of state or government

The Portuguese EU Council presidency invites EU leaders to Porto for an informal meeting.

Barendt Leyts, European Council, Portuguese Presidency of the Council of the European Union

This is one of four regular meetings of EU heads of state and government as the European Council.

Raising the 2030 climate target requires a set of actions across all sectors of the economy. Basically, all major energy and climate legislation will have to be amended and the Commission plans to present its proposals by June 2021. Pieces of legislation the Commission will review to implement this increased ambition include: the EU Emissions Trading System; the Effort Sharing Regulation; the Land Use, Land Use Change and Forestry Regulation; the Energy Efficiency Directive; the Renewable Energy Directive; and the CO2 Emissions Performance Standards for Cars and Vans Regulation, as well as the planned carbon border adjustment mechanism Find more details here. As part of this process, the Commission will review impacts at the level of member states and consider distribution-related issues. An important consideration in this context will be how revenues from carbon pricing are distributed between member states and the EU as own resources.

The Commission aims to present an action plan for the development of organis production, a zero pollution action plan for water, air and soil, and a legislation draft on minimising the risk of deforestation and forest degradation associated with products placed on the EU market.

The Commission aims to establish a green bond standard. Later, planned for the fourth quarter, it will present plans to revise the Markets in Financial Instruments Directive and Regulation.

The UK will host the 47th summit of the Group of Seven (G7) major economies. The government has extended invitations also to India, Australia and South Korea to attend the summit, dubbed "D10" for ten democracies. As the UK also hosts the November UN climate conference COP26, the G7 offers the opportunity to already put a focus on climate policy.

The Commission aims to present a proposal to revise the Directive on Intelligent Transport Systems, including a multimodal ticketing initiative and the Regulation on the trans-European transport network (TEN-T), an EU 2021 Rail Corridor Initiative, and it wants to develop post-Euro 6/VI emission standards for cars, vans, lorries and buses.

Raising the 2030 climate target requires a set of actions across all sectors of the economy. Basically, all major energy and climate legislation will have to be amended and the Commission plans to present most of its proposals by June 2021. Some proposals, however, will be put forth in the fourth quarter: a revision of the energy performance of Buildings Directive, and a revision of the Third Energy Package for gas to regulate competitive decarbonised gas markets.

The European Commission is set to present legislation for its circular economy package. This includes a sustainable products policy initiative, including a revision of the Ecodesign Directive, and a proposal on circular electronics.

This is one of four regular meetings of EU heads of state and government as the European Council.

This is one of four regular meetings of EU heads of state and government as the European Council.