Industry calls on EP ENVI to truly make EU ETS for road a success
7 February 2022 – The undersigned associations (representing European freight forwarders and logistics service providers, express delivery operators, and importers and exporters) embrace the concept of an EU ETS for road transport which provides a uniform EU carbon price and level-playing field to address the decarbonisation of road transport within the Single Market.
ETS road can play a crucial instrumental role but only if MEPs in the ENVI committee and across the European Parliament support the European Commission-proposed user-pays and polluter-pays principles for all road users, accelerate the uptake of low and zero carbon fuels, and make ETS for road the sole EU policy instrument to charge for CO2 for road transport.
- “User pays” and “polluter pays” principles are sacrosanct: In order for the “user pays” and “polluter pays” principles to fully play their role in the future ETS for road environment, they should apply equally to all road users, ranging from individual car users to commercial freight transport.
- Boost uptake of low and zero carbon fuels is essential: Earmarking the ETS for road income and investing these revenues in both the uptake of low and zero emission carbon fuels and the deployment of interoperable refuelling/recharging infrastructure forms an efficient and fair use of public resources. Deviating ETS for road income (to modes other than road transport) equals depriving the road transport sector of a unique opportunity to make a quick-paced sustainable turnaround.
- A sole EU policy instrument to charge for CO2 is the most effective: ETS for road will provide for an EU-harmonised framework to effectively reduce the CO2 footprint of the road transport sector. Other instruments such as the Eurovignette Directive should therefore not include any elements related to CO2 as this would lead to double charging.
Both CLECAT and EEA have voiced the above points at today’s 4th Stakeholder Meeting on ETS organised by Peter Liese MEP. All undersigned associations are of the opinion that incorporating provisions along these lines into the ETS Road text will have road transport contribute its fair share in achieving the EU climate goals.