Impact of national circumstances on policy-making process

1
Impact of national circumstances on policy-making
process Key drivers underlying emission trends
in Belgium Etienne HannonFederal DG Environment
Belgium
Workshop on the preparation of the fourth
national communications by Parties included in
Annex I to the Convention 30 September - 1
October 2004, Dublin, Ireland
2
Belgian federal structure

• 1 Federal State
• 3 Communities
• 3 Regions

equal from the legal point of view but powers and
responsibilities for different fields
3
Overview of competences
Federal State Regions
Environment Coordination of the international environmental policy Regulating marketing of products (standards, labels,) waste transit, marine environment, radioactive waste Environmental policy (air, water, soil, forest) Waste management dangerous installations, nature and hunting conservation,
Energy Major infrastructure planning in electricity and gas sectors Tariffs taxes Nuclear Off-shore wind energy Local distribution and transport of gas electricity RUE energy efficiency RES heat networks, energy recovery,
Transport National airport Railways Taxes on vehicles and fuels Technical standards for vehicles Highways , waterways, seaports, regional airports Public transport School transport
4
The challenge of climate policy

• Climate policy complex issue energy,
  transport, fiscality, agriculture, waste,
• Belgian federal structure adds extra dimension to
  complexity
• Federal and regional competencies in most
  cc-related policy domains
• Federal and regional levels are sovereign
  regarding their competences

gt Need for extensive coordination
5
Cooperation agreement for climate policy

• Parties Federal State, Flemish region, Walloon
  region, Brussels-Capital region
• Main objective reduce GHG emissions, as
  determined by KP and decision 2002/358/EC (EU
  burden sharing) (-7.5)
• Specific objectives
• implementation and follow-up of the National
  Climate Plan
• ensure compliance with reporting obligations
  (UNFCCC, KP Mechanism for monitoring EC GHG
  emissions (decision 280/2004/EC)

6
Cooperation agreement for climate policy

• Executive body National Climate Commission
• Provisions related to reporting
• to make sure that methodologies, procedures, data
  analysis, projections used by the Parties to the
  agreement are compatible and, if possible,
  harmonised
• Regions are committed to deliver yearly to the
  NCC a report containing the relevant information
  allowing the federal government to report data in
  accordance with the UNFCCC guidelines, and
  decision 280/2004/EC

7
National Burden Sharing agreement

1. Regions are assigned a target

1. Regions are each responsable for closing the
   difference between emissions and Assigned Amount
   on their territory, through

? reducing their emissions
? using flexibility mechanisms
8
National Burden Sharing agreement

• Regional Assigned Amounts under the burden
  sharing
• Walloon Region 1990 emissions minus 7,5
• Flemish Region 1990 emissions minus 5,2
• Brussels Capital Region 1990 emissions plus
  3,475

• Total exceeds Belgian Assigned Amount under the
  Kyoto Protocol
• Federal Government will cover the difference
  through use of the Kyoto Flexibility Mechanisms
• 2,46 Mton CO2-eq/yr.in 2008-2012
• Financed by 25 M/yr. Kyoto Fund (operational
  since 2003)

9
Greenhouse gas emission in Belgium (2002)
Total GHG emissions 150.3 Mt CO2 eq CO2
emissions 84.2 of total emissions
10
Belgian emission trends (1990-2002)
11
In-depth review of the 3rd Nat. Com.

• The review team .. noted the following trends
  a substantial increase in the emissions from
  transport, an increase in the other emissions
  ..
• The emission trends are presented well in the
  NC3 but not all factors leading to these trends
  are clearly explained.
• .. no data to support explanations that
  freight transport by road grew faster than GDP
  were available at the time of the review ...
  The review team encouraged Belgian experts to
  continue studies in this area
• The review team identified some areas for
  further improvement identification of key
  drivers for emissions growth
• The Belgian NC3 is, in general, in compliance
  with the UNFCCC reporting guidelines

12
How to improve the reporting of information on
key drivers ?

• Solution development of indicators
• Criteria for the selection of indicators
• clear definition common understanding
• be policy relevant
• soundly founded
• transparent (well documented and of known
  quality)
• comparable
• easily available (cf. data resource demand)

13
Indicators developments within the EU

• European Energy Agency  core set of
  indicators 
• 37 indicators on 11 topics, among which energy
  (5) CC (4)
• Basis for EEA reports ( Environment signals )
• Eurostat  structural indicators  on
  environment
• 15 indicators, based on latest national
  statistics, available on the web
• Mechanism for monitoring EC GHG emissions
  (decision 280/2004/EC)
• 15 (13) indicators to be reported annually (CO2
  intensities)
• ODYSSEE-SAVE European project on energy
  efficiency indicators
• Objective to review national achievements in
  energy efficiency and CO2 emissions at a sectoral
  level
• Network of 15 national Agencies
• Products common database on energy efficiency
  indicators, workshops, annual reports

14
Energy intensity of GDP
toe / M EUR 95 (1990 100)
before climate correction after climate correction
Source ECONOTEC (The ODYSSEE Project Results
for Belgium)
15
Final energy intensity by sector
(1990 100)
industry transport tertiary residential
Final energy use (toe) / activity variable (M
EUR 95)
Source ECONOTEC (The ODYSSEE Project Results
for Belgium)
16
Energy intensity a good proxy for energy
efficiency ?

• Energy (CO2) intensity
• consumption (CO2 emissions) / GDP (or value
  added)
• economic approach
• easily available but encompass other effects than
  energy efficiency (structure)

• ? Not appropriate to identify and assess the
  contributions of the main factors responsible for
  the changes in energy consumption

17
Contributions to changes in energy intensities

• Evolution of the energy intensity can be
  expressed as the sum of two different
  contributions
• structural effect effect of a change in the
  structure of the consumption sector
• e.g. shift of industrial output from energy
  intensive industries to less energy intensive
  industries
• unit consumption effect change in consumption
  per unit of activity (proxy for the energy
  efficiency)

Unit consumption effect EIt - EI0 - SEt
18
Key drivers of the energy consumption in road
transport (passenger)
( of the consumption in 1990)
Source NIS, ODYSSEE (calculations by ECONOTEC)
19
Key drivers of the energy consumption in road
transport (freight)
( of the consumption in 1990)
Wallonia Source NIS, ODYSSEE (calculations by
ECONOTEC)
20
Conclusions

• Institutional complexity is not an obstacle to
  the implementation of climate policies or the
  compliance with reporting obligations but need
  for extensive cooperation and institutional
  arrangements
• Analysis of key drivers of emission trends allows
  for identifying problems, highlighting good
  practices and tuning PAMs
• Sets of widely used indicators are currently
  available, which allow for a thorough analysis of
  key drivers

21
Thank you !