PRESS ROOM
Fit for 55 legislation: Going harder, deeper, faster with the EU Emissions Trading System
Friday 22nd October '21
The European Union’s Emissions Trading System (ETS), the European marketplace for the trading of carbon emission allowances and the EU’s market-based solution to climate change, already sits as the centrepiece of the EU’s strategy on limiting climate change. In June 2021, the EU adopted a European Climate Law, establishing the aim of reaching net zero greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) in the EU by 2050. The law sets an intermediate target of reducing GHG by at least 55% by 2030 compared to 1990 levels. The ‘Fit for 55’ package is a set of policy proposals by the European Commission to achieve this 55% reduction target. In the absence of this legislative package, EU expects to only reduce GHG by 40%. This legislative package announced in July 2021 will be the subject of intense and complicated negotiations in the EU’s lawmaking institutions – the Council of the EU representing national governments and the European Parliament – well into 2022. The final content might also be influenced by the upcoming international climate change negotiations, COP 26, in Glasgow in November this year.