How EU Directives on GHG Emissions Discriminate Against... EU Member States and Their Citizens

Abstract

At face value, the intentions of EU’s Directives {2003/87 to 2018/410} are good – limiting greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, as a way to combat global warming and avert dangerous climate change. However, the implementation of those Directives – specifically, the Emissions Trading System (ETS) – entails two paths of discrimination: 1. Against Eastern European members, since in 2014 most of them have already exceeded the 2030 reduction target (40% compared to 1990), set by the European Council during the same year. The GHG reduction results in 2014 stood as follows: Bulgaria - 49.5%, Estonia - 48.4%, Hungary - 47.1%, Latvia - 58.7%, Lithuania - 58.2%, Romania - 63.4%, Slovakia - 45.7%. Those were some of the biggest GHG reductions worldwide, much higher than the EU average of 24.1%. Instead of being completely relieved of participation in the ETS, the aforementioned EU members continued (and continue) to comply fully with the regulations, incurring substantial costs. 2. Against all EU members, as worldwide there is no matching scheme and even some of the wealthiest nations – with sufficient capabilities for environmental policies – recorded an increase of GHG emissions during the 1990-2019 period: Australia by 28.7%, Canada by 24.1%, and New Zealand by 26.4%. The statistics for developing countries are even worse: for instance, India’s and China’s emissions increased nearly four-fold. In other words, the EU is almost alone in implementing ambitious policies – respectively, incurring social and economic costs – to reduce GHG emissions.