Opinion of the Economic and Social Committee on the 'Proposal for a Council Decision amending Decision 93/389/EEC for a monitoring mechanism of Community CO2 and other greenhouse gas emissions` () (97/C 89/03)

On 17 October 1996 the Council decided to consult the Economic and Social Committee, under Article 130s of the Treaty establishing the European Community, on the above-mentioned proposal.

The Section for Protection of the Environment, Public Health and Consumer Affairs, which was responsible for preparing the Committee's work on the subject, adopted its opinion on 7 January 1997. The rapporteur was Mr Gafo-Fernandez.

At its 342nd Plenary Session (meeting of 29 January 1997), the Economic and Social Committee adopted the following opinion unanimously.

1. Introduction

1.1. The objective of this proposal is to improve and round off the existing monitoring mechanism for anthropogenic gas emissions which are believed to cause global warming. This is regulated by Council Decision 93/389/EEC ().

1.2. The proposed improvements focus on the inclusion in the monitoring mechanism of not only CO2 emissions but also 'other greenhouse-gas emissions not controlled by the Montreal Protocol` and any gases which may be listed in future protocols to the UN framework convention on climate change. The aim is also to improve the systems whereby the Member States report on their national monitoring programmes, so that it is possible to identify emissions by sources, including their removal by sinks (), as well as the measures adopted or planned to limit such emissions in future.

1.3. Increasing both the number of gases which are to be covered and the information supplied by national programmes are improvements which will also enable the monitoring system to continue until the reference years of 2005, 2010 and 2020.

2. General comments

2.1. The Committee fully endorses this proposal.

2.2. The Committee also fully endorses the deadlines in respect of monitoring which it contains. They should make for improved information on greenhouse-gas emissions and a better appraisal of national programmes. This in turn should enable the overall Community objective of stabilizing such emissions to be reached.

2.3. The Committee would, however, wish to make a number of comments which should help to improve the application of this proposed decision.

2.4. The Committee's principal comment concerns the methodology to be used to calculate anthropogenic greenhouse-gas emissions and the cushioning effect of using sinks. Although the ESC understands that this needs to be based on the methodology being developed by the international group of experts on climate change (IPCC), the very lack of more detailed information in this connection raises doubts concerning its availability and adoption by the Member States by a date which is in keeping with the deadlines set out in the proposed decision.

2.5. The current harmonization of methodology is apparently focused on assessing the inventory of emissions based on CORINAIR statistics. There is, however, seemingly no harmonization when projections for the future are made. The Committee would therefore wish to emphasise the need for a single, clearly applicable methodology designed for the precise evaluation of emissions at national level and by sources, and of their impact over the next five, ten and twenty years in line with their Global Warming Potential (GWP), together with the effect of the corrective measures adopted in each Member State.

2.6. Reference is made on several occasions in the proposal to ozone precursors as having a detrimental effect on health. It should be indicated that this is 'tropospheric ozone` so that the public can distinguish it from 'stratospheric ozone`. Attempts are being made to correct the disappearance of the latter by prohibiting the use of those products which are destroying it.

2.7. In Article 6, the ESC should be included as a recipient of the assessment reports on progress achieved.

Brussels, 29 January 1997.

The President of the Economic and Social Committee

Tom JENKINS

() OJ No C 314, 24. 10. 1996, p. 11.

() OJ No L 167, 9. 7. 1993.

() Natural recipients which convert greenhouse gases and thus cancel out their impact on the climate.