Explanatory Memorandum to COM(2011)789 - Mechanism for monitoring and reporting greenhouse gas emissions and for reporting other information at national and Union level relevant to climate change

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dossier COM(2011)789 - Mechanism for monitoring and reporting greenhouse gas emissions and for reporting other information at national and Union ...
source COM(2011)789 EN
date 23-11-2011
1. CONTEXT OF THE PROPOSAL

Following broad consultation of Member States and stakeholders, and an impact assessment, the Commission proposes revising the monitoring mechanism established under Decision No 280/2004/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council by replacing that Decision. The proposal seeks to improve the existing monitoring and reporting system to ensure compliance with Union and Member State commitments and obligations under current and future international climate change agreements, to fulfil the legal requirements of the Climate and Energy Package, and to support the development of climate mitigation and adaptation instruments at Union level.

The Commission proposes replacing Decision No 280/2004/EC by a Regulation on account of the broader scope of the legislation, the increased number of addressees, the highly technical and harmonised nature of the monitoring mechanism, and to facilitate its implementation.

· Grounds for and objectives of the proposal

The objective of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), which was approved on behalf of the European Community by Council Decision No 94/69/ECof 15 December 1993 concerning the conclusion of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, is to stabilise greenhouse gas (GHG) concentrations in the atmosphere at a level that would prevent dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climate system. To meet this objective the overall global annual mean surface temperature increase should not exceed 2ºC above pre-industrial levels. The fourth Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Assessment Report shows that, to reach this objective, global emissions of greenhouse gases must peak by 2020.

The Kyoto Protocol, which was ratified by the Union on 31 May 2002, entered into force on 16 February 2005. The Protocol sets binding targets for reducing or limiting greenhouse gas emissions for the Union and the Member States (except Malta and Cyprus). The European Council of March 2007 also made a firm commitment to reduce the EU's overall greenhouse gas emissions by at least 20% below 1990 levels by 2020, and by 30% provided that other developed countries commit themselves to comparable emission reductions and economically more advanced developing countries contribute according to their respective capabilities. The Climate and Energy package agreed in December 2008 converted the 20% reduction targets into law. These targets also appear in Decision 2/CP.15 ("the Copenhagen Accord"), which the Union and the Member States endorsed on 28 January 2010.

The objective of Decision No 280/2004/EC, referred to hereafter as the 'Monitoring Mechanism Decision,' was to establish a mechanism for monitoring all anthropogenic emissions by sources and removals by sinks of greenhouse gases not controlled by the Montreal Protocol; evaluating Member States' progress on their obligations under the UNFCCC and the Kyoto Protocol; implementing the reporting requirements under the UNFCCC and the Kyoto Protocol; and ensuring the timeliness, completeness, accuracy, consistency, comparability and transparency of reporting by the Union and the Member States to the UNFCCC Secretariat.

5.

The aims of the proposed revision are to:


– reflect in the Monitoring Mechanism Regulation reporting obligations arising from the UNFCCC, the Kyoto Protocol and subsequent decisions adopted there under with regards to GHG emissions and financial and technology support provided to developing countries;

– help the Union and the Member States meet their mitigation commitments and implement the Climate and Energy package;

– support the development of new Union climate change mitigation and adaptation instruments.

This proposal also makes improvements to the monitoring and reporting requirements on GHG emissions resulting from six years of experience with Decision No 280/2004/EC and its implementing provisions, namely Decision No 2005/166/EC, and experience in implementing various UNFCCC requirements.

· General context

The need to revise the Monitoring Mechanism Decision is based on the following reasons.

– Decision No 280/2004/EC concerning a mechanism for monitoring Community greenhouse gas emissions and for implementing the Kyoto Protocol and its implementing provisions are the main monitoring, reporting, and verification instruments on GHG emissions. They set out the details for reporting anthropogenic GHG emissions by sources and removals by sinks, for providing information on national programmes to reduce emissions, on GHG emission projections, and on climate change policies and measures in accordance with the UNFCCC.

– Six years of experience in implementing these two decisions and experience gained during international negotiations and in implementing various UNFCCC requirements have shown that there are areas where significant improvements could be made. In addition, the need to step up mitigation action at EU and Member State level and to fulfil new and upcoming international and domestic commitments, including the Europe 2020 strategy, requires an improved monitoring and reporting system.

– To address the concerns about the growing threat of global climate change resulting from increasing concentrations of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, the Union is implementing and planning a series of mitigation policies and actions. Creating a solid monitoring, evaluation, reporting, and verification framework for GHG emissions is an important part of this process as it enables the EU to more effectively develop and implement future policies and to assess and demonstrate that it is meeting its commitments.

– At the Conference of the Parties (COP) under the UNFCCC in Copenhagen (COP 15), the Union and the Member States committed to providing significant fast-start and long-term climate financing and technological support to developing countries. At COP 16 in Cancun, countries agreed (paragraph 40 of Decision 1/CP.16) that each developed country under the UNFCCC shall enhance reporting on the provision of financial, technological and capacity-building support to developing country Parties. Enhanced reporting is essential for the recognition of the Union’s and the Member States' efforts in fulfilling their commitments.

6.

More specifically, the revision of the Monitoring Mechanism Decision will attempt to address the following issues:


The existing monitoring and reporting system for GHG emissions and mitigation actions is not adequate to implement new requirements resulting from new legislation and new international developments under the UNFCCC;

The Climate and Energy package agreed between the Council and the European Parliament in 2009 introduced new requirements on monitoring and reporting for Member States. These need to be incorporated into the existing monitoring and reporting system to enter into effect. The 'Cancun Agreements' (Decision 1/CP.16) under the UNFCCC also require enhanced reporting on emissions and mitigation actions in the follow-up to the Kyoto Protocol.

There is insufficient data available at EU level to support future policy development and implementation;

In a number of areas/sectors of great significance in reducing GHG emissions and taking action at EU level, there is currently no, or insufficient data collected to underpin effective policy design and implementation. These areas are: a) maritime transport; b) aviation; c) land-use, land-use change and forestry (LULUCF), and d) adaptation.

The current monitoring and reporting system addresses GHG emissions and mitigation actions and does not take into consideration nor does it ensure compliance with new commitments under the UNFCCC related to the provision of financial and technological support to developing countries;

The Union made an international commitment to provide developing countries with significant fast-start and long-term climate financing and technological support. Transparent and comprehensive information on the type and amount of support provided is essential to ensure the Union's visibility, the efficient delivery of the Union's climate change message and credibility vis-à-vis our international partners. The problems identified above have often led to severe criticism by other countries that the Union and its Member States are not fulfilling their commitments and need to be resolved.

Additional data and information are needed to monitor progress towards emissions limitation targets, in particular under the Europe 2020 strategy;

The Europe 2020 strategy, the Union's new integrated economic policy strategy for growth and jobs, includes Union and national emissions limitation targets as headline targets.

There is an observed lack of transparency, timeliness, consistency, completeness and comparability of the information currently reported under the Monitoring Mechanism Decision;

The relatively high rate of non-compliance cases over the last years indicates that the transparency, accuracy, consistency and efficiency of the existing monitoring and reporting system could be improved.

Experience has shown that there is an urgent need for simplifying and streamline the current reporting requirements.

Experience in implementing the Monitoring Mechanism Decision has shown that certain reporting requirements did not deliver as expected or the information was not used as anticipated. It has also shown that links between reporting instruments could be improved.

· Existing provisions in the area of the proposal

The monitoring mechanism is currently established under Decision No 280/2004/EC, which will be repealed under this proposal.

· Consistency with the other policies and objectives of the Union

7.

The revision of the Monitoring Mechanism Decision:


– contributes to the overall objectives of the Climate and Energy package to reduce global GHG emissions, is consistent with the individual legal instruments adopted as part of the package, and aims to improve the implementation of additional policies in areas not yet sufficiently covered by the package;

– is in line with the discussions under the UNFCCC on the future measurement, reporting, and verification (MRV) systems for emissions, actions and provision of financial support both in terms of the issues proposed to be covered and the reporting areas selected for enhancement;

– is in line with the Europe 2020 strategy which includes the commitment to limit emissions as one of its headline targets and which requires that updated and recent information be made available on climate change action to monitor the progress made by the Member States and the Union;

– is in line with the simplification and better regulation objectives of the Union, as the revision builds on experience in implementation and the feedback received from stakeholders. The revision aims to address the weaknesses and problems identified and to simplify reporting requirements, as applicable. New requirements are aligned with and have thoroughly taken into consideration existing reporting streams and information needs.

Contents

1.

RESULTS OF CONSULTATIONS WITH THE INTERESTED PARTIES AND IMPACT ASSESSMENTS



· Consultation methods, main sectors targeted and general profile of respondents

In addition to expert meetings and workshops, an online public stakeholder consultation covering all aspects of the planned revision of Decision No 280/2004 was launched from 7 March 2011 to 29 April 2011. The on-line questionnaire was accessible from the DG Climate Action and 'Your Voice' websites. The questionnaire was made available in all official languages and due care was taken to inform stakeholders. Responses were received from private individuals, national administrations, non-governmental organisations, private companies, industry groups and a research institution.

· Outcome of the online public consultation process

The data collected through the online stakeholder consultation suggest that EU citizens have a keen interest in climate change information and support further improvements to the reporting system, in particular with regard to the comprehensiveness and transparency of information. Overall, respondents found that, despite a relatively good amount and quality of information and data on climate change, there is still scope for improvement and the majority of respondents considered that it would be worth improving the requirements in all the areas considered in this impact assessment. The results of the consultation are available online.

· Member States' consultation

Two workshops, a series of technical and sector-specific expert meetings and a number of projects were conducted in 2009, 2010 and 2011 to inform Member States on the revision of the Monitoring Mechanism Decision. At these meetings, the Member States agreed that there was a need to revise the Monitoring Mechanism Decision to take into account developments at Union and international level, and lessons learned through its implementation. Member States were, however, concerned about any resulting increase in administrative burden.

Seven Member States (Finland, Germany, Hungary, Netherlands, Slovakia, Spain and Sweden) volunteered to provide information on the administrative burden/costs. These Member States were consulted twice via questionnaires. However, only 5 (Finland, Germany, Hungary, Netherlands and Sweden) provided answers to the second questionnaire. The low response rate to the second questionnaire is mostly due to the fact that the questions dealt primarily with new provisions that will come in under the new Monitoring Mechanism Regulation. Thus Member States found it difficult to estimate the potential administrative burden. As a follow-up, and in accordance with the advice of the Impact Assessment Steering Group, Member States representatives were contacted by phone and email to obtain additional data or to clarify the information submitted. This process generated the final administrative burden data that underpin the impact assessment.

· Impact assessment

8.

The impact assessment investigated several issues, including:


– EU review and compliance cycle under the Effort Sharing Decision;

– Reporting requirements for emissions from international maritime transport;

– Reporting requirements related to the non-CO2 impacts of aviation on the global climate;

– Reporting requirements on adaptation;

– Additional reporting requirements on LULUCF;

– Reporting requirements on financial and technology support provided to developing countries;

– Consistency with other EU legal instruments targeting air pollutants and improvements based on past experience with implementation.

The impact assessment considered various policy options for each of these issues. The potential economic and environmental impacts have been considered in detail. The detailed evaluation of the options is set out in the impact assessment accompanying the proposal which will be available at the following address: ec.europa.eu/clima/studies/g-gas/index_en.

· Summary of the proposed action

The main objective of this Regulation is to help the Union and its Member States meet their national, Union, and international commitments and goals and to further develop policy through transparent, accurate, consistent, comparable and complete reporting.

Existing international reporting requirements already necessitate annual reporting of GHG emissions and reporting on other climate-related information (projections, mitigation actions, support provided to developing countries, adaptation) every 4 years. However, such reporting has long been considered insufficient and there has been a strong international push to enhance and add to the existing reporting requirements as well as to increase reporting frequency. This is particularly vital in these critical times where economic developments are having a marked impact on mitigation policy development and where providing early warning signals can significantly influence a country's ability to take action and can ensure that sustainable economic growth remains decoupled from GHG emissions. These very considerations were translated into concrete requirements in the recent international agreements in Cancun (Decision 1/CP.16) which indeed require a wealth of robust, comprehensive information (on projections, mitigation actions, support provided to developing countries) on a 2-year basis so as to underpin the commitments that Parties have decided to undertake. The international requirements complement also recently established requirements at the EU level through the climate and energy package where again there is clear acknowledgment of the need for better and more recent data and information. Finally, collecting more up-to-date information from Member States, particularly on their GHG projections and mitigation actions, will contribute to the implementation of the Europe 2020 strategy which includes the European and national emissions limitation targets as headline targets. In this context, this Regulation is proposing the enhancement of the monitoring, reporting and review framework within the EU thus enabling implementation of domestic and international commitments and enabling implementation of current policies and effective further policy development.

Given the uncertainties linked to a post-Kyoto Protocol climate regime and the need for an annual compliance cycle for the implementation of the ESD, this proposal includes setting up a Union level review process of the GHG data submitted by the Member States hence ensuring that compliance with the ESD targets is assessed in a comprehensive, transparent, credible and timely manner, as stipulated in the Climate and Energy package.

The proposal takes a prudent approach to reporting on emissions from international maritime transport and the LULUCF sector where policy discussions, both within the Union and internationally, are ongoing. It ensures that the monitoring mechanism provides an adequate framework for setting detailed reporting requirements at a later stage when a concrete policy outcome is reached, be it at international or Union level. This ensures coherence with a future policy framework, avoids duplicating efforts and ensures that the Union is able to implement the detailed requirements most efficiently.

The proposal ensures coherence with existing Union policy on the non-CO2 climate impacts of aviation, as it requires for the Commission to assess biennially those impacts on the basis of the latest available emission data and scientific advancements. This approach differs from those explored in the impact assessment and reflects the useful input received by other Commission services during the interservice consultation process. It was included in the proposal as it was deemed to achieve equivalent benefits at a significantly lower administrative burden.

With regard to reporting on projections, policies and measures the proposal requires annual reporting so as to enable the annual assessment of the commitments made by the EU at the national and international level but also so as to enable early and effective corrective action. It should be noted that many Member States are already reporting updated information every year if they consider that the information submitted during the previous year is obsolete. The proposal takes a pragmatic approach in that it does not request for duplicative background information to be submitted to the Commission but rather seeks to ensure that the existing technical background reports are made available for the public's information.

With regard to finance and technology support, the proposal enhances reporting on the basis of common methods, in line with the Union's obligation to provide transparent and complete information on the financial and technology support it provides to developing countries.

Annual reporting on adaptation action will help identify the action taken by Member States and develop a Union-wide adaptation strategy. It will also provide information and data to the EU Clearinghouse Mechanism, which will be a useful tool for national, regional and local policy makers. In line with the impact assessment, this is an efficient option as it involves a limited administrative burden but ensures that the Union is better able to meet its international reporting obligations.

Lastly, the proposal enhances existing national systems in the Member States to address reporting on projections, policies and measures and provides consistency with other legal instruments targeting air pollutants. This is an efficient way forward as, despite the related burden, it will lead in the long-run to better compliance, simplification and lower costs. The proposal also includes better quality assurance / quality control provisions and introduces streamlined reporting formats and guidance to increase the quality and completeness of the data provided and to simplify existing reporting requirements without imposing an undue administrative burden.

2.

LEGAL ELEMENTS OF THE PROPOSAL



· Legal basis

The legal basis for the legislative proposal is Article 192 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union. The proposal pursues a legitimate objective within the scope of Article 191 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, namely, combating climate change (mitigation and adaptation). The purpose of the proposal is to improve the availability of information for Union policy and decision-making and the coordination and consistency of Union and Member State reporting under the UNFCCC. This objective cannot be achieved by less restrictive means. It does not affect the current general division of responsibilities between the Union and the Member States on monitoring, data collection and reporting as established under the Monitoring Mechanism Decision.

· Subsidiarity principle

9.

For EU action to be justified, the subsidiarity principle must be respected:


10.

(a) Transnational nature of the problem (necessity test)


The transnational nature of climate change is an important element in determining whether Union action is necessary. Domestic action alone would not achieve compliance with internationally agreed commitments and would not suffice to meet the objectives and the targets set under the Effort Sharing Decision. It is therefore necessary for the Union to create an enabling framework to meet international and Union requirements, ensuring harmonised reporting wherever possible. Improving reporting efficiency, which requires co-ordination across a range of instruments, and the timeliness and quality of reporting under the UNFCCC in compiling data from all 27 Member States, also require Union-level coordination.

11.

(b) Effectiveness test (added value)


Besides the fact that most of the proposed revisions arise from existing or upcoming Union and international requirements, action at Union level would produce clear benefits compared to action at national level due to its effectiveness. As the overarching commitments are made at the Union level, it is more effective to develop the required reporting instruments at the Union level. In addition, overcoming the identified problems, such as the quality and timeliness of Union and Member States reporting, requires coordinating data and methods across all 27 Member States, which is more effective at Union level.

Experience, in particular with reporting on GHG emissions to the UNFCCC, has shown that the Monitoring Mechanism Decision has contributed significantly to facilitating and enforcing good quality reporting. The additional checks and analyses of Member State data under the Monitoring Mechanism Decision has led to better quality reporting to the UNFCCC, has proactively assisted Member States in fulfilling their commitments and has also contributed greatly to limiting non-compliance cases under the UNFCCC. The added level of compliance enforcement engendered by the possibility for the Commission to initiate infringement procedures has also been instrumental.

It is expected that extending reporting under the revised Monitoring Mechanism to new areas covered by the UNFCCC, such as finance and technology support, will yield similar significant benefits. Reporting under the revised Monitoring Mechanism will provide a more detailed assessment and appreciation of Member States' data and will ensure that gaps and weaknesses are clearly identified and concrete action is taken to address them which are two areas of reporting that are crucial to the Union's international credibility. In addition, reporting under the revised Monitoring Mechanism will ensure at least some common minimum standards, since the information has been reported in a rather inconsistent manner. Lastly, the application of infringement procedures will be important to ensure that any remaining issues are dealt internally within the Union as opposed to the UNFCCC where the political and legal implications could be significant.

With regard to reporting on adaptation, the revised Monitoring Mechanism will have similar benefits to those mentioned above with the added advantage that it will also provide a platform to share best practices. As adaptation is a problem shared by all Member States, centralising the reporting of information will be beneficial to understanding adaptation needs, and to identifying best practices and gaps that could be addressed, either through action at Union level or though cooperation among the Member States.

· Proportionality principle

12.

The proposal complies with the proportionality principle for the following reasons:


It does not go beyond what is necessary to achieve the objectives of improving climate change data quality and ensuring compliance under international and Union requirements.

The proposal is proportionate to the Union's overall objective of reaching its Kyoto greenhouse gas emission reduction targets, the Union targets enshrined in the Climate and Energy package, the Copenhagen Accord, and Decision 1/CP.16 ("Cancun Agreements").

The proposal provides for the implementation of a monitoring mechanism that is similar, in practices and procedures, to the one already implemented under Decision No 280/2004/EC.

3.

BUDGETARY IMPLICATION



As specified in the financial statement accompanying this Regulation, the Regulation will be implemented using the existing budget and will not have an impact on the multi-annual financial framework.

4.

5. OPTIONAL ELEMENTS


· Review/revision/sunset clause

The proposal includes a provision allowing the Commission to review this Regulation in the context of future decisions relating to the UNFCCC and the Kyoto Protocol or other Union legislation. Where necessary, the Commission will propose amendments to this Regulation to the European Parliament and to the Council, amend existing delegated acts or adopt new ones.