We can only achieve these targets if everyone and every country contributes to do their best and achieve what we have agreed on.

Lawmakers on the European Parliament’s environment committee urged EU countries to step up their efforts to reduce emissions in sectors such as agriculture, buildings and transport, which are currently not covered by the bloc’s emissions trading scheme.

Too many Member States are already behind our previous targets. So, we need to be ambitious.

The effort-sharing regulation covers greenhouse gas emissions from sectors such as transport, buildings, agriculture and waste. These account for almost 60% of Europe’s total emissions. The revision of the regulation, tabled in July 2021, would increase overall emissions reductions in these sectors by 29-40%. In order to meet this target, each EU country has set itself a binding target for the level of reductions it must make, the amount of which depends on its GDP per capita.

Some countries will have to halve their emissions in the sectors covered, while others will see much smaller reductions. However, all EU Member States will have to make some sort of cut, which was not the case before. Since Europe’s climate targets for 2030 and 2050 are only relevant at the EU level, legislators and environmental organisations see the effort-sharing regulation as a key driver for reducing emissions at the national level.

The effort-sharing regulation is one of the few legal instruments we have to reduce Member States’ emissions and is essential for our ability to meet the Union’s new climate ambitions.

That some countries are not doing their fair share is simply not acceptable!

The European Commission acknowledged that not all EU countries are on track to meet their targets.

“Some Member States will either have to step up their game or use the flexibilities built into the system,” said Yvon Slingenberg, director of the Commission’s climate directorate.