The European Union’s new 55% climate target will bring major revisions of the EU’s energy and climate laws. Quite opposing policy options are on the table: Strengthening the existing policy architecture or moving to a carbon price all-out approach. RAP teamed up with Stefan Scheuer Consulting and Öko-Institut to inform the discussion about these options. Their resulting study looks at the interactions and synergies between three of the key policy instruments: the Effort Sharing Regulation, EU Emission Trading System and the energy savings obligations in Article 7 of the Energy Efficiency Directive.

The study clearly shows that the Effort Sharing Regulation is an important driver for national action to deliver energy savings and thus to ensure cost-effective and equitable greenhouse gas reductions.

The study assesses different scenarios with more ambitious Effort Sharing Regulation targets for Member States and with an increased level of energy savings under Article 7. Most countries would need to fully deliver their energy savings obligation under the Energy Efficiency Directive in order to meet the effort sharing targets, not only with the current level of 0.8% savings per year but also with an increased level of 1.6%.