Tribune. On July 14, the European Commission proposed a historic plan for the climate neutrality of the European Union (EU) in 2050: “ Fit for 55 “. By this catchy name, which could be translated as “ready for 55”, the Commission is signaling that it has a comprehensive and coherent plan to achieve the intermediate objective of reducing European emissions. [de gaz à effet de serre] by 55% in 2030 compared to 1990, a rate four times more intense than before 2020.
To achieve this objective, the Commission intends to capitalize on existing policies and strengthen their ambition.
CO emissions standards2 on new vehicles will be lowered, until reaching zero in 2035. On that date, a manufacturer who will sell vehicles on average as polluting as current sales (108 g / km of CO2 in 2020) will have to pay a penalty of 10,000 euros per vehicle.
The Emissions Trading System (ETS) covering industrial emissions (including power plants) will be complemented by a border adjustment mechanism. By subjecting importers to the European carbon price, it will prevent European production from being replaced by imports from countries without emissions regulation.
Criticable scope
A new ETS will cover fossil fuels for heating and transport. Its revenues will be used to protect vulnerable households and help them replace their equipment. In all, the ETS will cap 70% of emissions at a level compatible with the target. Each member state will be required to reduce its non-industrial emissions according to a target assigned for the sake of equity, which will cap the remaining emissions through allowances tradable between states.
The EU refuses to grant substantial transfers to Africa and South Asia, while these countries legitimately make it a condition of their decarbonization
Finally, air and maritime emissions will be stabilized at their current level despite an increase in traffic, by dividing the carbon content of fuels by three by 2050. For more details on the planned measures, see “The Green Deal is- is there a good deal? “, long version from this rostrum.
Despite all these measures, when we aspire to a sustainable and fair society as quickly as possible, the “Green Deal” [« pacte vert »] can disappoint. Faced with the more sustainable option of sobriety, he favors the consumer society. Its scope is open to criticism: the target of -55% excludes air and maritime emissions linked to destinations outside the EU; instead of focusing on the carbon footprint, the target only concerns EU territorial emissions, and therefore does not impose limits on imported emissions.
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