EU faces lawsuits over emissions rules, 'green' label for planes

By Kate Abnett and Simon Jessop

BRUSSELS (Reuters) -Environmental campaigners have taken the European Commission to court, seeking to force Brussels to upgrade its emissions rules for 2030 and, in a second case, scrap rules that label some planes as climate-friendly investments.

In a case before the Court of Justice of the European Union's General Court, non-profit groups Climate Action Network and the Global Legal Action Network argue that national limits on greenhouse gas emissions for sectors such as transport and agriculture are unlawful.

The campaigners said on Tuesday the thresholds would fail to cut Europe's planet-heating emissions fast enough to meet the Paris Agreement's goal to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius (about 2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial levels.

A European Commission spokesperson declined to comment on ongoing legal proceedings.

The limits, which require EU member states to cut their emissions in those sectors between 10% and 50% from 2005 levels, contribute to the EU's overall goal of reducing net emissions 55% by 2030, in relation to 1990 levels.

Scientists say the world's emissions need to roughly halve by 2030 to have a shot at limiting warming to 1.5C. Campaigners argue wealthy, large historical polluters like the EU should be moving faster than that.

The court has given the case priority status, meaning it could be heard in 2025.

A second case, filed by five campaign groups to the EU's General Court on Tuesday, seeks to force Brussels to revise rules adding aviation to the EU's "taxonomy", a list of investments labelled green and therefore eligible to receive green finance from investors and banks.

The EU policy classes investments in new, more fuel-efficient planes as helping to fight climate change, on the grounds that they will push dirtier old planes into retirement - curbing emissions before technologies like zero-emission aircraft become commercially available.

It also offers a green label to ships that run on liquefied natural gas - a fossil fuel that is less CO2-intensive than oil, but still produces CO2 emissions and is associated with emissions of the potent greenhouse gas methane.

The campaigners said the EU was greenwashing, by labelling planes and ships running entirely on fossil fuels as climate-friendly.

"The aviation and shipping criteria send completely the wrong signal to investors," said David Kay, legal director at Opportunity Green, one of the groups bringing the lawsuit.

A Commission spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment on this case.

(Reporting by Kate Abnett, Simon Jessop; Editing by Helen Popper and Mark Potter)