Fit for 55 – EU gets ready for complete overhaul of climate and energy legislation

The Brussels bubble has been talking about it for months, but what is about to be presented by the European Commission will have repercussions for national governments and the entire EU population: the “Fit for 55 package” – a proposal to essentially overhaul the bloc’s entire climate and energy legislation as the next step towards climate neutrality.

Just days before the Commission will unload its hundreds of pages of legislative proposals onto newsroom desks across the continent, Clean Energy Wire invites policymakers, analysts and business representatives to share their views on questions such as:

• Why a complete overhaul of energy and climate legislation?

• What are key pieces of the package?

• Which aspects should journalists focus on?

• How to deal with the hundreds of pages?

• Where are we likely to see the fiercest battle among member states and why?

• What do industry and NGOs demand?

• Which aspects of the package influence the EU’s international relations?

• What are the next steps in the legislative process? When will things be decided?

The Fit for 55 package is a key component of the bloc’s green growth strategy – the European Green Deal – and the necessary foundation for the EU to reach its newly decided more ambitious 2030 climate target. “By next summer, we will revise all of our climate and energy legislation to make it ‘fit for 55’,” said Commission president Ursula von der Leyen during her state of the union speech in September 2020. “We will enhance emission trading, boost renewable energy, improve energy efficiency, reform energy taxation.”

The year 2021 is crucial for global climate action, ringing in what U.S. climate envoy John Kerry has called the decisive “decade of action” – and the EU aims to prove it is on track to become the first climate neutral continent by 2050. Major economies including China, the U.S., the UK and Japan have announced more ambitious climate targets, but combined plans still fall short of what is needed. The summit meetings of the world’s largest economies and top emitters – the G7 in in June and the G20 in October – pave the way for the COP26 UN climate change conference in Glasgow in November.

COP26 is the first climate conference since governments were expected to submit more ambitious climate action plans for 2030 known as the nationally determined contributions (NDCs). The pledges are the first test of the so-called “ratchet mechanism”, a cornerstone of the Paris Agreement designed to increase climate ambition over time. As the key component of its updated NDC, the EU has decided to increase its 2030 greenhouse reduction target to “at least 55 percent”.

However, setting a target is one thing, reaching it another. With the Fit for 55 package, the Commission makes the reform proposals it deems necessary for the bloc to reach the new target. The elements will be:

• Revision of the EU Emission Trading System (EU ETS), including revision of the EU ETS Directive concerning aviation, maritime and CORSIA
• Revision of the Regulation on the inclusion of greenhouse gas emissions and removals from land use, land use change and forestry (LULUCF)
• Effort Sharing Regulation
• Amendment to the Renewable Energy Directive to implement the ambition of the new 2030 climate target
• Amendment of the Energy Efficiency Directive to implement the ambition of the new 2030 climate target
• ReFuelEU Aviation - sustainable aviation fuels
• FuelEU Maritime – green European maritime space
• Revision of the Directive on deployment of the alternative fuels infrastructure
• Amendment of the Regulation setting CO2 emission standards for cars and vans
• Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism
• Revision of the Energy Tax Directive