Bríd Smith (Dublin South Central, People Before Profit Alliance)
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1301. To ask the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment the reason the State sought flexibilities in regard to a reduction in carbon dioxide emissions before 2030; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [1378/18]

Denis Naughten (Roscommon-Galway, Independent)
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The European Union commitment under the Paris Agreement to a reduction of at least 40% in EU-wide greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 compared with 1990 levels will be met through reductions of 43% in the Emission Trading System (ETS) and 30% in the non-ETS sector compared with 2005 levels.

The legislative proposals for an Effort Sharing Regulation and for a Regulation on Land Use, Land Use-Change and Forestry (LULUCF), published by the European Commission in July 2016, address the EU commitment for a 30% reduction in non-ETS sector emissions compared with 2005 levels by 2030.

The draft Effort Sharing Regulation proposed individual Member State targets to be achieved on an annual basis over each of the years from 2021 to 2030, based on GDP per capita and the cost-effectiveness of domestic emissions reductions within individual Member States. In the case of Ireland, a target of a 39% reduction on 2005 levels by 2030 was proposed, adjusted to 30% to reflect the cost-effectiveness of measures within Ireland’s economy.

The draft Regulation, as published by the Commission, also included a number of provisions for Member States to meet their annual compliance obligations in a flexible manner in the context of maintaining overall progress towards the targets for 2030. These include, subject to certain conditions, mechanisms to bank or borrow excess allowances between individual years, to trade allowances between Member States, to effect a transfer of allowances from the ETS to the non-ETS sector, and to take into account the climate mitigation impact of net removals of emissions from deforested land, afforested land, managed cropland and managed grassland towards a Member State’s compliance with its targets.

Provisional agreements were reached on the draft Effort Sharing and LULUCF Regulations between the Council and the European Parliament in December 2017. These agreements must now be formally confirmed by both institutions.

The provisional agreement on the Effort Sharing Regulation maintains the overall approach to establishing Member State targets based on GDP per capita and the cost-effectiveness as well as the mechanisms providing a flexible approach to compliance as set out above.

I am satisfied that the outcome of the negotiations on these regulations confirms the high environmental ambition of the original Commission proposals, while providing appropriate recognition of different Member State circumstances and the need to provide flexibility to reduce emissions as cost-effectively as possible in the context of the overall EU target. The agreed outcome does not in any way diminish the significant challenge that will be required over the period to 2030 for each Member State to meet its respective targets.