BRUSSELS: European Union lawmakers backed more domestic action to fight climate change, cutting import limits on carbon offsets from developing countries through 2020, in a vote on Tuesday which will carry into EU negotiations.
The European Parliament's influential environment committee also voted to allow member states to trade their EU emissions quotas among themselves, and introduced tough penalties for nations that exceed their greenhouse gas limits. Trading emissions quotas would allow member states which under-cut their greenhouse gas caps to sell the difference to others which were struggling to meet theirs. Sellers would have to use the revenue for "green" projects.
Carbon offsets are generated from emissions-cutting in developing countries, for example through projects to improve energy efficiency or destroy greenhouse gases, and are a cheaper alternative than cutting emissions in Europe. The lawmakers voted to allow member states to import offsets up to the equivalent of 8 percent of their 2005 emissions, for the whole period from 2013-2020.
That is a tougher limit than that proposed by the EU executive Commission in January, which allowed annual use of offsets equivalent to 3 percent of 2005 emissions through 2020.
Member states which exceeded their caps would be charged per tonne of extra greenhouse gas, in carbon dioxide equivalent, and the European Commission would also take control of their national levies from selling emissions permits to industry.
The votes are not the parliament's final say on the emissions rules, which do not apply to the EU emissions trading scheme (ETS), but will set the tone for negotiations with EU leaders ahead of a final agreement later this year or early in 2009.
The committee will vote later on Tuesday on whether to support sweeping cuts in carbon emissions from coal plants and on how to tweak the EU ETS to ease costs for industry.
