Trinomics, in collaboration with Ricardo-AEA (lead partner), IEEP and VITO, has been awarded a service contract by the European Commission’s DG Climate Action to evaluate and provide support for assessing the impact of the Effort Sharing Decision (No 406/2009/EC). The Effort Sharing Decision (ESD) was agreed by the EU as part of the Climate and Energy package in December 2008. It sets national limits for greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in the non-trading sectors in the EU Member States in 2020. This target also forms part of the EU’s current 10-year growth strategy – “Europe 2020 Strategy for smart, sustainable and inclusive growth” (Europe 2020 Strategy) – which is aimed at overcoming the effects of the economic crisis as well as at addressing the shortcomings of the EU’s growth model and creating the conditions for a different type of growth that is smarter, more sustainable and more inclusive. The Decision defines linear legally binding emissions trajectories in Member States for the period 2013-2020 with annual monitoring and compliance checks. It also provides flexibility for Member States in reaching their targets by allowing transfers of annual emissions allocations between years, between Member States and the use of external credits through the Clean Development Mechanism. In this way the ESD can be regarded as (flexible) emissions ceiling, which can be achieved via multiple sectors, comprising both national and Community wide instruments.
The objective of this study is to provide support to the Commission with the evaluation and Impact Assessment of Decision No 406/2009/EC, in particular:
a) To evaluate the implementation of the Effort Sharing Decision, the experience and lessons learnt. The evaluation will provide evidence-based information on the extent to which Member States have implemented policies and measures to limit their GHG emissions in the sectors and gases covered by the Decision, and the effect of these policies and measures on their national emissions within the scope of the ESD. It shall also evaluate if the Decision is contributing to the overall EU 2020 GHG emissions target as expected and which role the flexibility mechanisms have played until now. The evaluation shall help the Commission determine the relevance, effectiveness, efficiency, coherence and EU added value of the Decision as well as its impact on competition.
b) To assess economic, social and environmental impacts as well as the administrative burden of different policy options for a number of specific aspects of the Effort Sharing Decision in a 2030 perspective with respect to i) the use and design of flexibility mechanisms to help Member States fulfil their obligations cost-efficiently, and ii) monitoring of progress and compliance.
