Reducing greenhouse gases by 2020: the effort sharing decision

SUMMARY OF:

Decision No 406/2009/EC on the effort of European Union (EU) Member States to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions to meet EU greenhouse gas emission reduction commitments up to 2020

WHAT IS THE AIM OF THE DECISION?

The effort sharing decision (ESD) established binding annual greenhouse gas (GHG) emission targets for the European Union (EU)’s Member States for the 2013–2020 period. These targets concerned emissions from most sectors not included in the EU emissions trading system (EU ETS), such as transport (except aviation and international maritime shipping), buildings, agriculture and waste.
The ESD was part of a set of policies and measures on climate change and energy – known as the climate and energy package – that was designed to help the EU to transition towards a low-carbon economy and increase its energy security.
The ESD set national emission targets for 2020, expressed as percentage changes from 2005 emission levels. It also fixed how many tonnes of GHG emissions each Member State could emit in each year from 2013 to 2020 in the sectors covered by the decision.

KEY POINTS

The emission targets for 2020 were set on the basis of Member States’ relative wealth (measured by gross domestic product per person). They ranged from a 20% emissions reduction by 2020 (from 2005 levels) for the richest Member States to a 20% increase for the least wealthy one, Bulgaria.
To ensure steady progress towards the 2020 target, Decision 2013/162/EU set GHG emission limits for each Member State for each year. These limits are called annual emission allocations (AEAs).
At the same time, some flexibility was allowed in reaching the targets and enabling Member States to make the emission reductions in a cost-effective way: Member States could borrow 5% of their AEAs from the next year and buy AEAs from other Member States or buy credits from certain projects, for example from a project that helped least-developed countries cut their emissions. Were a Member State to reduce its emissions by more than needed, thus exceeding its target for a given year, it could bank the surplus AEAs for later use (until 2020) or sell it to other Member States.
Every year, each Member State had to report its emissions and progress towards its target to the European Commission via national inventory reports, which were reviewed by technical experts.
Following the review of Member States’ GHG inventories, the Commission, each year, adopted an implementing act (decision) in which the final ESD emissions per Member State were determined, having taken into consideration the technical corrections and revised estimates calculated during the review. These decisions are listed in the ‘Related documents’ section below.
Once every 2 years, Member States published reports on their policies and measures, and projections of their future progress. The rules for this reporting were laid down in Regulation (EU) No 525/2013 – subsequently repealed and replaced by Regulation (EU) 2018/1999 on governance of the energy union (see summary).
If, in a given year, a Member State were to emit more GHGs than it was allowed to, it had to inform the Commission of how it planned to get back on track, and had to pay a ‘fee’ in the form of a stricter emission target for the following year.

Progress made under the effort sharing decision

In 2020, the recorded emissions covered by the ESD were 16.3% lower than in 2005, exceeding the EU’s target by 6 percentage points. All Member States met their effort sharing obligations in all years in the period between 2013 and 2020.

FROM WHEN DOES THE DECISION APPLY?

It applied from 2013 to 2020.

BACKGROUND

For further information, see:

Effort sharing 2013–2020: Targets, flexibilities and results (European Commission).

MAIN DOCUMENT

Decision No 406/2009/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 23 April 2009 on the effort of Member States to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions to meet the Community’s greenhouse gas emission reduction commitments up to 2020 (OJ L 140, 5.6.2009, pp. 136–148).

Successive amendments to Decision No 406/2009/EC have been incorporated into the original text. This consolidated version is of documentary value only.