Documents considered by the Committee on 28 January 2015 - European Scrutiny Committee Contents



Annex 3: Letter from Mr Tim Yeo, Chair of the Energy and Climate Change Committee

"Thank you for providing the Committee with the European Commission's Work Programme 2015, setting out the Commission's priorities and legislative proposals for the year. You asked which of the proposals we consider to be particularly important. In looking over the Work Programme I have focused on the two new initiatives listed within the broad heading 'A Resilient Energy Union with a Forward-Looking Climate Change Policy', these are:

·  Strategic Framework for the Energy Union; and

·  Communication on the Road to Paris — multilateral response to climate change.

"The Strategic Framework will focus on: energy supply security; integration of national energy markets; reduction in European energy demand; decarbonising the energy mix and promoting research and innovation in the energy field. It will include the revision of the EU Emissions Trading System (ETS) as part of the legislative framework post-2020. The Strategic Framework should be a priority for scrutiny by the House, in particular due to the focus on energy supply security and integration of national energy markets, which could have serious implications for the UK. I would hope that this will be something that the Energy and Climate Change Committee would be able to look at in detail, subject to time constraints and the priorities for our successor Committee after the election. It will certainly be on the agenda for my Committee's upcoming meetings with the Commission and other stakeholders in Brussels. My Committee (or its successor Committee) might also be in a position to help the House scrutinise the revision of the EU ETS as part of the legislative framework post-2020. The Government itself is supporting stronger reforms to make the EU ETS work more efficiently (see DECC announcement of 20 October 2014 on establishing a Market Stability Reserve). We have recently conducted a related inquiry into 'linking ETSs' and we hope to publish our report on this subject in the coming months.

"The second of the two new initiatives is a proposal to set out the EU vision and expectations in the run-up to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) Conference of the Parties (COP) in Paris at the end of 2015. The Commission has also stated in its Work Programme that it will begin to table the legislative proposals to implement the 2030 Climate and Energy package. My Committee has scrutinised UK participation in, and outcomes of, COP meetings throughout the course of this Parliament and I would anticipate that our successor Committee will continue to do so. COP21 in Paris was recently described to us by the Energy and Climate Change Secretary as "one of the top priorities for the next Government right from the start through to November-December". As such, the Commission's vision and expectations on COP21 should be of general interest to the House.

"I hope this is helpful and would be happy to provide further information if necessary."


 
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