Climate and Energy | ia-institute

Preview of new IAI scrutiny in the Climate & Energy policy area

July 26th 2016

To ensure maximum effectiveness of EU policy measures for climate action, factually based and transparently compiled Impact Assessments are essential. The European Commission’s 20th July communications and legislative actions on low carbon economy and mobility are a new opportunity to embed Better Regulation principles into a key area of policy making. The Impact Assessment Institute is following up its earlier work in the climate and energy area by scrutinising evidence presented by the Commission, providing all stakeholders with an impartial evaluation of the key data.

The European Commission’s communications of 20th July on Energy Union and Climate Action: “Driving Europe’s transition to a low-carbon economy” present evidence relating to important legislative actions. In particular, the legislative proposal and Impact Assessment were adopted for the Effort Sharing Regulation setting binding annual greenhouse gas (GHG) emission targets for Member States in the non-ETS sectors. In addition, two Inception Impact Assessments (IIAs) and accompanying consultations were published in the area of road transport decarbonisation. The communication points to further legislative actions in the future.

The Effort Sharing Regulation proposes individual Member State GHG targets, in order to meet the 40% EU reduction target by 2030 proposed by the Commission in 2014 and endorsed by the European Parliament and Council. The Impact Assessment Institute (IAI) is considering including a scrutiny study of the Effort Sharing Impact Assessment in its work plan, focusing in particular on the transparency and validity of the data and modelling used to calculate the targets.

In parallel, the IAI has started work on studies scrutinising the IIAs on “Regulating CO2 emissions from light duty vehicles” and “Monitoring Heavy Duty Vehicles' fuel consumption and CO2 emissions”. These are to be assessed in terms of the objective to provide “a comprehensive basis for stakeholders to provide feedback, information and opinions” at the start of the Impact Assessment process. The text and form of the accompanying consultations will also be reviewed to determine how they enable stakeholders to contribute to the evidence gathering process.

Links to previous Impact Assessment Institute studies on Climate & Energy:

Study on the Impact Assessments for Climate & Energy and Energy Efficiency Policy for 2030

Study on the European Commission Inception Impact Assessment on the new Renewable Energy Directive