Council of the
European Union
Brussels, 27 April 2015
(OR. en)
8152/15
ADD 1
Interinstitutional File:
2013/0443 (COD)
LIMITE
ENV 228
ENER 122
IND 56
TRANS 135
ENT 64
SAN 115
PARLNAT 32
CODEC 554
NOTE
From:
To:
General Secretariat of the Council
Delegations
No. prev. doc.:
7442/15 ENV 182 ENER 107 IND 46 TRANS 106 ENT 46 SAN 82
PARLNAT 24 CODEC 397
18167/13 ENV 1235 ENER 600 IND 388 TRANS 693 ENT 356 SAN 555
PARLNAT 325 CODEC 3086 - COM(2013) 920 final
No. Cion doc.:
Subject:
Proposal for a Directive of the European Parliament and of the Council on
the reduction of national emissions of certain atmospheric pollutants and
amending Directive 2003/35/EC
Comments from delegations
With a view to the Working Party on the Environment (WPE) meeting on 29 April, delegations will
find in the Annex comments received from the Czech Republic on the Presidency compromise text
(document 7442/15) concerning the abovementioned proposal.
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ANNEX
2030 is a reasonably distant target year for agreement in 2015 to put in place ambitious emission
reduction measures. However, for such a long-distant target and taking into account all factors
influencing the total emissions of atmospheric pollutants, the Member States and stakeholders face
the issue of uncertainty of the future developments.
Uncertainty of the future developments in the energy sector comes not only from the changing
availability of certain energy sources, their volatile prices that are partly influenced by other
policies, but increasing importance has the question of energy security. Energy prices are a major
social issue in a lot of Member States and emission reduction realized by means of fuel-shifting
may, in some cases, lead to the problem of energy poverty.
Insecurity comes also from possible population increase and higher economic activity. Emission
reduction targets should not be hindrance to increased industrial production and other economic
activities.
If we want serious and ambitious emission reduction targets, we have to take all these uncertainties
into account. With current flexibility mechanisms available, the negotiation positions of individual
Member States would lead to approval of only emission targets that corresponds to the most
emission intensive scenario of the future development.
A new flexibility mechanism shall be incorporated into the proposal that covers also (currently)
unpredictable developments of activity. This flexibility mechanism should enable changes to
emission reduction targets that result from some currently unforeseen developments, with the
condition that Member States would make effort to counterbalance these developments, but further
reduction (also in other sectors) by purely technical measures would be impossible or would lead to
disproportionate costs.
For some sectors the possibility to achieve emission reduction in other sectors is very limited, this is
particularly the case for agriculture emissions of ammonia.
The flexibility would also be limited to some specifically mentioned circumstances only:


Emission reduction by means of fuel-shift would pose danger to energy security or could
cause energy poverty for a significant population,
Increased activity data is caused by the increase of total population or economic activity.
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Draft proposal text:
Article 5
Flexibilities
1.
[…] Member States may establish adjusted annual national emission inventories for SO2,
NOx, NH3, NMVOC and PM2,5 […] where non-compliance with their national emission
reduction commitments or their intermediate emission levels would result from applying
improved emission inventory methods updated in accordance with scientific knowledge or in
case the non-compliance results from higher activity data for energy consumption,
economic activities, population or traffic intesity as compared with the assumptions used
for setting emission reduction targets, and under the condition that further emission
reduction by technical measures is not technically or economically feasible or could not
be realized in other sectors and Member States made demonstrable effort to
counterbalance the development, and:
(a)
emission reduction resulting from transition to different fuels or energy source
would lead to decrease in national energy security or would pose a risk of energy
poverty for a significant population, or
(b)
different emission levels are caused by increase of population or increase of
economic activities.
ANNEX IV
PART 4
ADJUSTMENT OF NATIONAL INVENTORIES
1.
A Member State that proposes an adjustment to its national emission inventory in accordance
with the provision of article 5 ([…]) shall include in its proposal to the Commission, at least,
the following supporting documentation:
(a)
evidence that the concerned national emission reduction commitment(s) is/are
exceeded;
(b)
evidence of the extent to which the adjustment to the emission inventory reduces the
exceedance and contributes to compliance with the concerned national emission
reduction commitment(s);
(c)
an estimation of whether and when the concerned national emission reduction
commitment(s) is/are expected to be attained based on emission projections without the
adjustment;
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(d)
evidence that the adjustment is consistent with one or several of the following four
circumstances. Reference can be made, as appropriate, to relevant previous adjustments:
(i)
for new emission source categories:
[…]
(ii)
for significantly different emission factors used for determining emissions from
specific source categories
[…]
(iii) for significantly different methodologies used for determining emissions from
specific source categories
[…]
(iv) for significantly different activity data used for determining emission
reduction commitments from specific source categories
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–
original and actual activity data for a specific source category (energy
consumption, economic activities, volume of production and other
economic activity or population data, if used for calculating the
emissions);
–
demonstration of the effort made by the Member State to
counterbalance the development;
–
analysis of costs required to achieve the emission reduction target by
technical measures;
–
analysis of impacts and costs for transition to other energy source (in
case Art. 5 (1) a is used);
–
analysis of the possibility to achieve the emission reduction in other
sectors (in case Art. 5(1)b is used).
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