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Climate Action
News article15 February 2017Directorate-General for Climate Action

EU Emissions Trading System: Parliament vote marks major step towards reaching agreement

The European Parliament has today adopted its position in support of the revision of the ETS Directive for the period after 2021. This concludes a year of intensive deliberations and paves the way for negotiations with the Council.

EU ETS

The European Parliament has today adopted its position in support of the revision of the ETS Directive for the period after 2021. This concludes a year of intensive deliberations and paves the way for negotiations with the Council.

The EU Emissions Trading System (EU ETS) is the EU's flagship policy to combat climate change by reducing the emissions from more than 11,000 installations in the power sector and energy intensive industry through a market-based cap and trade system.

Today's vote provides a clear outcome after more than a year of discussions in Parliament, led by the committee for Environment, and taking due account of opinions of the Industry, Research and Energy (ITRE) and the Development (DEVE) committees.

Welcoming the vote, Commissioner for Climate Action and Energy Miguel Arias Cañete said: "Today's landmark vote provides a clear outcome after more than a year of discussions in Parliament, and it demonstrates the European Union's commitment to turning the Paris Agreement into reality through concrete action on the ground. Now the EU ETS revision is on the Council's table and we hope they can swiftly reach an agreement to kick-start negotiations."

Building on the Commission's proposal from July 2015, Parliament voted in favour of changes to strengthen the Market Stability Reserve to more quickly reduce the current oversupply of allowances on the carbon market.

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Publication date
15 February 2017
Author
Directorate-General for Climate Action