Fit for 55: EPP attempts to water down climate laws pushed back by MEPs

A dramatic turn of events in the European Parliament on Wednesday saw MEPs refuse to adopt key Fit For 55 legislation that would reform the EU’s carbon market, as well as introduce a carbon tax.

The moves came from left-wing and centre-left MEPs who kicked back against the centre-right European People’s Party’s attempts to water down the laws intended to arm Europe against the climate crisis.

The three texts – reform the EU’s carbon market ETS, the introduction of a carbon border tax and creating a Social Climate Fund – failed to make it after MEPs voted down the Emissions Trading System by 365 votes to 265, and 34 abstentions.

Carbon tax delay reveals EP’s divide on climate crisis

Lead lawmaker Peter Liese, of the EPP, was furious. “It’s a bad day for this Parliament,” he said.

The vote that trumped the laws concerned the date of the end of free allocation of emission credits and the start of the carbon tax. A political deal to set the dates at 2028 for the phase-out and 2036 for the CBAM, a less strict deadline, was voted against by the Greens, the Left and the S&D, as well as by the European Conservatives (ECR) and far-right IND for opposite reasons, leaving just the EPP and Renew supporting the key text.

The text, and interlinked laws on the CBAM and the Social Climate Fund, now go back to the EP’s environment committee to once again resolve the impasse over the two dates.

Pascal Canfin, chair of the ENVI Committee on Fit for 55 in 2030, said a deal could be made as early as today or in the summer.

EPP members passed a series of amendments that would have weakened emissions cuts far more than that proposed by the environment committee, by delaying the phase-out of free carbon credits. S&D leader Iratxe Garcia Perez said: “You can’t ask for a vote from the extreme right in order to reduce ambition and then ask for our vote in order to support it as a whole.”

The text last approved by the environment committee would have slashed emissions in buildings and transport by 67% until 2030, but with a more gradual removal of carbon credits. After the EPP’s amendments passed, the S&D decided to vote down the entire report rather than allow a weakened version to pass.

EC vice-president Frans Timmermans yesterday warned the plenary that attempts to water down the laws on the ETS were a matter of concern.

“This is an incredibly important extra tool to tackle emissions and buildings and transport. In transport, emissions are not just rising gradually. They’re shooting up instead of going down. In buildings, we need to double our effort to reduce consumption of energy. This helps our citizens reduce their energy bills, delivering better quality homes, reducing air pollution that still kills prematurely 400,000 Europeans every year. It is urgent.

“And then of course, we need this instrument to fill a Social Climate Fund that could help us help vulnerable households. If you look at what's happening, this is what we need to help vulnerable households to switch to clean forms of heating and mobility. Now, many members now want to reduce the new ETS to commercial buildings and transport, at least for the beginning. This will take two-thirds of the emissions out of the system. Instead of delivering 45% of emissions reductions in buildings and transport, it would only deliver 10%.”