Fit to lose the climate challenge

The Effort Sharing regulation (ESR) sets binding national climate targets for each EU member state. While the Regulation is essential to ensure that countries put in place the needed climate measures to contribute to the EU’s overall emissions reduction goal, national targets remain empty shells if not properly implemented and enforced. The Commission’s ESR proposal contains many ingredients that would hollow out the targets. T&E analysis finds that the emissions reduction trajectory sets a far too generous emissions budget for 2021-2030. In addition, flexibilities and loopholes in the regulation mean that, by 2030, emissions in the ESR sectors would not be cut by -40%, but by a mere -33%. 

This briefing presents the detailed results of T&E’s modeling on the impact of the ESR’s trajectory and flexibilities on the 2030 target, and suggests how to improve it.