By Kate Abnett
BRUSSELS (Reuters) – The European Parliament will have a second try at agreeing key climate change policies next week, after rejecting them in a chaotic first vote that risked delaying the EU’s carbon-cutting measures.
Lawmakers are trying to find a position for negotiations with European Union countries to upgrade the EU’s carbon market and launch a carbon border tariff that will hit imports of CO2-heavy goods like steel and cement.
The policies, alongside others, aim to put the EU on track to cut net planet-warming emissions by 55% by 2030, from 1990 levels. The EU is attempting to clinch deals on the final laws this year.
Finding agreement has proved difficult, however. The EU assembly rejected the entire carbon market proposal last month, with lawmakers at odds about how ambitious Europe’s CO2-cutting policies should be, against a backdrop of soaring energy costs and inflation.
The parliament will vote for a second time on the carbon market on 22 June, a lawmaker committee decided on Tuesday. It will also vote on the carbon border tariff and an EU fund designed to shield low-income households from the impact of CO2 costs. Those votes were postponed because they are linked to the carbon market.
Green and Socialists had rejected the carbon market proposal because they deemed it too weak, while right-wing groups considered it too ambitious.
The second vote looks set to be complicated and divisive. Lawmakers will vote again on the carbon market amendments that won support in the the first vote, before the entire proposal was rejected. They will also consider a raft of other amendments, which groups will now propose in search of a winning compromise.
Europe’s carbon market forces power plants and factories to buy CO2 permits when they pollute. It puts a gradually decreasing cap on the number of permits made available each year, to ensure emissions fall over time.
The disagreement that thwarted the first vote was how quickly to phase out the free CO2 permits the EU gives industry, with lawmakers split between 2030, 2032 and 2035 end dates.
(Reporting by Kate Abnett; Editing by Frank Jack Daniel)
