European Commission endorses emission limit under Effort Sharing

The European Commission has adopted the annual emission allocations for Member States for 2023, 2024 and 2025, aligning them with the agreed, more ambitious national targets for 2030. These will collectively cut the EU’s greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in the Effort Sharing sectors by 40% when compared with 2005 levels (the previous 2030 target was a 30% reduction). As a consequence, EU countries are required to update their national energy and climate plans for the 2021-2030 decade, setting out the policies and measures to meet their 2030 targets. A first draft of the update is due by 30 June 2023, and the final update is to be submitted to the Commission by 30 June 2024.

The annual emission allocations define the maximum level of GHG emissions that each country can produce per year in the sectors covered by the European Union’s Effort Sharing legislation. The legislation enables Member States to share the effort to reduce GHG emissions in key sectors, including domestic transport, buildings, agriculture, small industry, and waste, which are responsible for around 60% of all greenhouse gas emissions in the EU.

Between 2023 and 2025, emissions for the Effort Sharing sectors, which include domestic transport, buildings, agriculture, small industry, and waste and account for around 60% of all GHG emissions in the EU, should decline by 3.9%/year on average. Countries which are making the largest reduction effort includes Germany (-5.6%/year over 2023-2025), Finland (-5.2%/year) and Luxembourg (-5.1%/year). Countries with the smallest reduction effort or increase are Greece (+0.5%/year), Croatia (-1.2%/year) and Hungary (-1.3%/year).

In the Effort Sharing sectors, greenhouse gas emissions fell by 16.3% between 2005 and 2020, clearly overachieving the target of a 10% reduction under the Effort Sharing Decision. The remaining emissions are covered by the EU Emission Trading System and the Land use, land use change and forestry (LULUCF) Regulation.