Commerce du CO2 : Les ministres réclament un système plus 'robuste'[en] 

EU ministers called on 28 June 2007 for a full review of the emissions-trading scheme (ETS), the EU's climate change flagship project, operational since 2005, which allows energy-producing companies to buy and sell carbon credits (allowances) on the market in order to achieve target cuts in the amount of CO2 emissions they release into the atmosphere. 

Responding to criticism that too many allowances have been handed out in recent years, ministers agreed that the cap-setting mechanism for member states should be bolstered, giving governments fewer opportunities to over-allocate. They also said that a larger number of credits should be auctioned in the future, rather than given to companies for free – a move so far resisted by companies. But a move towards 100% auctioning – as demanded by green groups – still appears unlikely, with ministers instead calling for a minimum rate to be established. 

The Environment Council also agreed that the cap-and-trade system should cover greenhouse gases apart from CO2 and should apply to "all installations with significant CO2 emissions" – not only power generation and energy-intensive industries. A proposal to include aviation in the scheme has already been tabled, but other sectors, such as land use, forestry and surface transport, as well as smaller business installations, could also be included in the near future. 

More robust compliance and enforcement mechanisms should also be considered to ensure the good functioning of the scheme, ministers said. 

However, green NGOs say that the decision to tighten emissions limits will be undermined by EU plans to allow companies to buy more credits from outside the EU under the Clean Development Mechanism (EurActiv 14/06/07). "Instead of reducing carbon emissions and creating a more sustainable environment, companies included in the trading scheme are likely to purchase cheap external project credits that take investment out of the EU and sink them into potentially dubious Clean Development Mechanism projects. There is a real danger that this will lock the EU into high carbon investments and soaring emissions for many years to come," said Sanjeev Kumar, EU-ETS co-ordinator for the WWF. 

NGOs also remain doubtful as to the inclusion of new sectors, saying that emissions from land transport, for example, could be much better dealt with by other measures such as fuel-standards taxes, and insisting that the goal of the ETS should remain to tackle emissions from large industrial point sources. 

The Commission is due to present a legislative proposal before the end of 2007 to shed more light on how the scheme will finally be amended.