Europe's climate-elephant in the room: What to do with left-over emissions when we get to net zero? (euobserver.com)

As the European Commission published its review of the EU Emissions Trading System (ETS), one of the first steps towards implementing the 2040 climate target to reduce emissions by 90 percent, Europe is moving towards the most challenging sources of emissions: “residual emissions”, which remain undefined in the policy architecture. Residual emissions are what is left after all feasible reductions have been pursued, based on technical, economic, or social constraints. It is time to address the elephant in the room. Europe cannot claim it will become the world’s first climate-neutral continent by 2050 without defining what residual emissions are and how to deal with them. The EU therefore needs a strategy that defines residual emissions, identifies their sources, explains how they must be continuously reduced, and clarifies how they should ultimately be counterbalanced. The starting point must be clear: residual emissions must be minimised, not assumed. That also means being realistic about the limits of land sinks and permanent carbon removals for counterbalancing residual emissions. Expectations must be grounded in what can realistically be delivered sustainably and at scale. Waiting is also a risk. If we treat some emissions as “unavoidable” too early, without properly examining whether they truly are,...