Parliament’s environment committee votes on climate regulation
This week, the European Parliament’s Environment (ENVI) Committee has voted on several pieces of legislation for the Fit for 55 package – the European Commission’s climate package to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 55% by 2030. Among these legislative initiatives was the LULUCF, or Land Use, Land Use Change and Forestry, Regulation also covering CO2 emissions and removals from agriculture and forestry.
In their report, the ENVI Committee adopted several important amendments:
- Members of the European Parliament supported the target to increase EU carbon sinks of 310 Mt CO2eq at EU level (in 2030) adding 50 Mt removals from carbon farming;
- Agricultural non-CO2 emissions should stay under the Effort Sharing Regulation. No combined AFOLU (Agriculture, Forestry and Other Land Use) pillar should be introduced. This is crucial to ensure that agricultural emissions are not hidden by forestry removals and the agricultural sector also contributes to ambitious emissions reductions;
- Sector-specific sub-targets for croplands, grasslands and wetlands were introduced;
- Several biodiversity considerations were introduced across the legislation.
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