The European Parliament's Environment (ENVI) Committee voted on the draft reports on the greenhouse gas emission allowance trading system, on shared effort to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and on geological storage of carbon dioxide, at its meeting on October 6th and 7th 2008. Those are the main elements of the climate-energy package proposed by the European Commission in January this year.

This vote concerned the Commission's proposals for a revised directive on the EU Emissions Trading System (EU ETS), a decision on effort-sharing to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in non-EU ETS sector, and a directive on carbon capture and storage. The European Parliament's Environment (ENVI) Committee, is the lead committee for these elements of the climate-energy package.

The Commission's proposal on increasing the share of renewable energy was voted on by the Parliament's Industry Committee (ITRE), the lead committee for this issue, last month.

After the vote, EU Environment Commissioner Stavros Dimas welcomed the results as this is “another critical step in the process of equipping the European Union with the concrete measures needed to reach its ambitious targets for reducing greenhouse gas emissions and increasing renewable energy." Commissioner Dimas that it would take EU "closer to our goal of reaching a final agreement between the Parliament and Council in December so that the EU can take this to the UN climate conference in Poznan, Poland."

The Commission appreciates the speed with which the Parliament is dealing with this important package, which clearly confirms a sense of responsibility and commitment to address the pressing challenge of climate change.

In its vote, ENVI Committee approved some set of amendments to Commission's proposition but, nevertheless kept unchanged the broad architecture of these proposals.

Commissioner Dimas added that “the climate-energy package sets an example which our international partners are watching closely, and each step towards finalising it is important. I expect further impetus in this direction from the European Council next week and the Environment Council on 20 October."