Experts from the independent non-profit organization European Roundtable on Climate Change and Sustainable Transition (ERCST) have begun drafting a document that will help to integrate quotas from international markets into the European Union's emissions trading system (EU ETS) and carbon border adjustment mechanism (CBAM).
This will take place within the framework of the initiative “Integrating International Carbon Markets into EU Climate Policy and Action”. ERCST founder and executive director Andriy Marku announced the launch of the initiative in a letter to EcoPolitics.
The aim of the new initiative is to expand climate action and financing by integrating international carbon credits with a high degree of reliability into European climate policy and the European Union's emissions trading system (EU ETS) and carbon border adjustment mechanism (CBAM).
Andriy Marku said that the initiative is aimed at supporting the EU's ambitious climate goals. It will help complement domestic emissions reductions with highly effective international climate change mitigation measures. In this way, it is expected to accelerate global climate progress and increase the amount of climate finance.
Experts of the initiative will study the issue of creating a legal framework that would allow the use of high-quality international carbon credits within the framework of EU climate programs. They will develop a clear set of criteria to ensure that only allowances from projects with significant climate, social, and environmental benefits are included in the program.
The initiative should also ensure that the integration of international allowances does not undermine the sustainability and environmental integrity of the ETS and CBAM.
As part of this work, ERCST will develop a paper that explores and outlines some of the considerations that should be part of the discussion. In particular, it will include:
- high impact criteria, high integrity standards;
- alignment with the Paris Agreement;
- limited use for compliance purposes.
ERCST Executive Director Andriy Marku noted that this list is not exhaustive.
To develop and test the concepts and criteria, the organization plans to hold a series of roundtables with stakeholders.
ERCST plans to present the prepared document on May 13 at an event in Brussels.
Earlier, EcoPolitic introduced its readers to the second annual report on the progress of the European Union's climate and environmental goals. It showed low progress in the implementation of the 8th EU Environment Action Program, which is scheduled to run until 2030.
