“Fit for 55”: The EU Plan for a Green Transition

This article focuses on the importance of the “fit for 55” legislative package, which has as its main objective the transformation of the economy, society, and industry towards climate neutrality. Fit for 55 aims to ensure that the European Union meets the target of a 55% reduction in net greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 compared to 1990. There are several legislative proposals with regulations for areas as diverse as climate, energy and fuels, transport, buildings, land use, forests, or taxation. The legislation is presented as a comprehensive package, but will this package remain intact? Obviously, there are major political and legal challenges ahead. These various measures are positioned as inter-related and inter-dependent. They reflect a chosen policy mix of legal instruments that in turn represents a careful balance between pricing, targets, standards, and support measures. In this paper a critical analysis will be made of some of the main legislative proposals that are included in the “fit for 55” package, namely: (i) Reform of the Emissions Trading System; (ii) Effort Sharing Regulation (ESR); (iii) Revision of the Regulation on the inclusion of greenhouse gas emissions and resulting from activities related to land use, land use change and forestry (LULUCF); (iv) Revision of the Directive on the implementation of alternative fuels infrastructure; (v) Revision of the Regulation setting CO₂ emission performance standards for new passenger cars and new light commercial vehicles.