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EU’s new climate package must now close the ‘National Ownership Gap’
(EurActiv, 29 Jul 2021) Europe must go beyond EU-level targets and ambition to implement climate action across member states, if it wants to reach its own ambition and limit the world to 1.5°C warming, write Sharon Turner and Thomas Muinzer.
Sharon Turner is a visiting professor at Sussex University. Dr Thomas Muinzer is a senior lecturer at Aberdeen University. They are both legal experts for the Environmental Justice Network Ireland.
The EU’s new climate package released by the Commission in July must spur discussion amongst decision-makers on how to tackle the ‘national ownership gap’ that lies at the heart of the Union’s policy architecture that governs national climate action.
The EU’s Climate Law commits the Union collectively to achieve net zero, but this duty does not apply to individual Member States. The Fit for 55 package released on 14 July provides a golden opportunity to better foster the enabling conditions needed for effective transformational policy making at national level. Doing so would also de-risk the proposed expansion of the EU emissions trading scheme (ETS).
In an open letter to Commission President von Der Leyen and Vice-President Timmermans, we, along with fellow NGOs, stressed the need for the Effort Sharing Regulation (ESR) to be revised so that a stronger, more positive and future-proof framework for binding national targets could be set in place.
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EurActiv, 29 Jul 2021: EU’s new climate package must now close the ‘National Ownership Gap’
