In December, President of the European Commission von der Leyen unveiled plans to accelerate the European Union’s momentum towards becoming a climate-neutral continent by 2050.
Part of this deal will enshrine carbon neutrality in European law, extend the existing Carbon Emissions Trading System to include marine and phase out aviation’s free allowances, review the Energy Tax Directive, and introduce an Industrial Strategy to further reinforce the circular economy.
At the moment the main impact upon the lubricants sector is through the review of the Energy Tax Directive of which lubricants are included but at a zero rate. The impact upon the sector of the introduction of a planned Carbon Border Tax based on the carbon content of products is still uncertain at this time.
World Trade Organisation’s proposals upon which the tax would be based, have focused on carbon-based fuel and the use of a tax to regularise the impact of carbon-reduction measures across countries in order to reduce emissions.
The policy work on the review of the EU Energy Tax Directive will be led by UEIL and the position is to retain the status quo in having lubricants included in the Energy Tax Directive but at a zero rate.
Political guidelines for the next European Commission 2019 to 2024 can be found at https://ec.europa.eu/commission
An EU briefing on the Green Deal can be found at https://www.europarl.europa.eu
