ENTSOG TYNDP 2017 - Main Report

The Paris Agreement  1) (agreed in December 2015, entered into force November 2016) : At the Paris climate conference (COP21), 195 countries adopted the first-ever universal, legally binding global climate deal. The agreement sets out a global action plan to put the world on track to avoid dangerous climate change by limiting global warming to well below 2 °C. Governments agreed: \\ a long-term goal of keeping the increase in global average temperature to well below 2 °C above pre-industrial levels; \\ to aim to limit the increase to 1.5 °C, since this would significantly reduce risks and the impacts of climate change; \\ on the need for global emissions to peak as soon as possible, recognising that this will take longer for developing countries; \\ to undertake rapid reductions thereafter in accordance with the best available science. Effort Sharing Decision Proposal On 20 July 2016, the European Commission presented a legislative proposal, the “Effort Sharing Regulation”  2) , setting out binding annual greenhouse gas emission targets for Member States for the period 2021–2030. These targets cover sectors of the economy that fall outside the scope of the EU Emissions Trading System (EU ETS). These sectors, including transport, buildings, agriculture and waste man- agement, account for almost 60% of total EU emissions. The proposal is the follow- up to the Effort Sharing Decision   3) , which established national emissions targets for Member States in the non-ETS sectors between 2013 and 2020.

2.2.3.1 Current status

Overall the European Commission reports the EU has already exceeded the target set for CO ² reduction and is on track to meet other targets for 2020. The graph below shows the evolution of the total EU greenhouse gas emissions since 1990. Total EU greenhouse gas emissions in 2014 fell by over 6% compared to 2013, to around 24% below 1990 levels (scope of the 2009 Climate and Energy package).

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Figure 2.10: Total GHG emissions (in CO ² equivalent) indexed to 1990. EU-28 (Source: Eurostat)

 1) https://ec.europa.eu/clima/policies/international/negotiations/paris/index_en.htm  2) http://ec.europa.eu/clima/policies/effort/proposal/index_en.htm  3) http://ec.europa.eu/clima/policies/effort/index_en.htm

Ten-Year Network Development Plan 2017 Main Report | 55