The Paris Agreement and EU ETS

In December 2015, a new agreement was reached at the UN Paris Climate Conference, which entered into force on 4 November 2016. The Paris Agreement central aim is to strengthen the global response to the threat of climate change by keeping a global temperature rise this century well below 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels and to pursue efforts to limit the temperature increase even further to 1.5 degrees Celsius. The Paris Agreement requires all Parties to put forward their best efforts through nationally determined contributions (NDCs) and to strengthen these efforts in the years ahead. This includes requirements that all Parties report regularly on their emissions and on their implementation efforts.

However, the efforts reported so far are not yet sufficient to limit climate warming to 2 °C so that the measures envisaged by the Paris Agreement need to be further negotiated. The EU has committed itself to reducing its greenhouse gas emissions by at least 40 percent by 2030 (base year 1990). The way of reliably achieving this 40 percent reduction target will be clarified in detail in the coming years and the European Emission Trading System will play an important role here.