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Europe seeks breakthrough on climate change plans amid energy crisis
(Reuters, 17 Mar 2022) As governments roll out emergency measures to help citizens shoulder rising fossil fuel prices, opinion is divided over how to price carbon in coming years.
EU environment ministers will assess their progress on negotiating a raft of new climate change policies on Thursday, with countries divided over whether soaring energy prices should speed up or slow down their green agenda.
The invasion of Ukraine by Russia, Europe's top gas supplier, has put the EU on a mission to quit Russian fossil fuels within a few years - by hiking gas imports from elsewhere, and doubling down on its plans to slash planet-warming emissions this decade.
Those plans, which Brussels says will both fight climate change and help wrest countries free of Moscow's influence, include a dozen laws to curb emissions from industry, transport and the energy sector.
Ministers from EU countries will attempt on Thursday to find routes out of disagreements on some of the most contentious proposals, which a majority of EU countries and European Parliament must both approve.
Top of the list is a planned new carbon market to impose costs on CO2 emissions from transport and heating fuels.
A preparatory document by France, which chairs meetings of EU ministers until June, said countries still hold "significant differences of opinion" on that policy.
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Reuters, 17 Mar 2022: Europe seeks breakthrough on climate change plans amid energy crisis
