The European Parliament and the EU Member States reached an agreement on Thursday, November 10, on a new law regulating the contribution of the forestry and land use sector to the EU's 2030 climate goals.
The land use, land use change and forestry (LULUCF) includes the use of soils, trees, plants, biomass and wood and is responsible for the emission and absorption of CO2 from the atmosphere.
According to the political agreement reached, the EU will aim to remove 2030 million tonnes of net CO310 equivalent from LULUCF sectors by 2.
“CO2 carbon sinks can help us achieve our climate goals, including carbon neutrality, and thus protect our planet from the fatal negative consequences of climate change,” said Marian Jurečka, the Czech environment minister whose country currently holds the 6-month EU presidency.
“At the same time, the deal ensures that the different circumstances in each Member State are taken into account when setting further ambitions for the 2030 targets,” Jurečka said in a statement.
National goals
Under the agreement, EU negotiators would maintain the existing “no debit rule” until 2025, which says emissions from LULUCF sectors cannot exceed removals.
From 2026, removals should exceed emissions, with each EU country given a binding national target for 2030, in line with the European Commission's proposal submitted in July 2021.
Emissions from biomass used in energy production will also be included, which was not the case in the previous LULUCF regulations.
To prevent these targets from being lowered, EU countries are allocated a carbon budget for 2026-2029 and a range of indicative, annual values for removals and emissions.
The national CO2 removal targets are summarized in the table below:
EU climate chief Frans Timmermans said the LULUCF deal will allow “more accurate monitoring” of Europe's forest carbon sinks and put them “on track to grow”.
Forest carbon sinks have declined in recent years in almost every EU country, according to official data collected by researchers who attribute the loss to increased harvesting for biomass fuel.
Once finalized, the forestry and land use regulation will also “open the door to a higher EU climate target,” Timmermans said on Twitter.
The EU aims to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 55% by the end of the decade, a target that could be increased "to almost 57%" after the LULUCF deal, said Pascal Canfin, a French centrist MEP and Chairman of the European Parliament's Environment Committee.
Flexibility
The LULUCF deal included terms for EU member states, with some flexibility built into the legislation to take into account national differences.
According to the political agreement reached yesterday, EU member states retain the option to buy or sell “relocation units” from each other. They can also use excess emissions from other sectors, such as buildings, agriculture and waste, which are regulated by the so-called 'Effort Sharing' law.
A general flexibility clause was also added in the event of natural disturbances caused by climate change, such as forest fires, pests or soil emissions - "provided that the Union as a whole meets its 2030 target", according to an EU statement.
The flexibility mechanism can be granted “up to a fixed limit” and on the condition that EU countries submit evidence to the Commission according to a pre-defined methodology, the statement added.
Source Euroactive
