Tag: ETS

A proposal agreed to this week by major airlines could rescue UN efforts for a deal to cut greenhouse gas emissions in the aviation sector, but the industry still needs to lean on governments for the plan to move ahead to prevent the EU from imposing its emissions scheme on the industry, observers said.

A noted climatologist and recently-retired NASA research chief has entered the EU’s energy policy debate, with a warning that any re-industrialisation strategy which increases fossil fuels use can only be short-term, irrational and economically wasteful.

EXCLUSIVE / An EU plan to “backload” or withhold 900 million carbon allowances to see-saw their falling price, rejected by the European Parliament in a plenary session last week, could return for a ‘second-round’ vote in June.

EXCLUSIVE / Two former British Tory environment ministers, Tim Yeo and John Gummer, have called on rebellious Conservative MEPs to support an effective carbon market in a key European Parliament vote in Strasbourg today (16 April), because it is “what Margaret Thatcher would want”.

The European Commission is using an "outdated" list to grant free carbon emissions allowances to industries which say they face the risk of relocation abroad - or ‘carbon leakage’ - due to the bloc’s climate policies, a new study says.

European Union lawmakers on Tuesday (26 February) backed a Commission plan to suspend for a year a law that would make all airlines using EU airports pay for their carbon emissions, and urged US President Barack Obama to accelerate a global deal.

In the debate over the future of the EU’s Emissions Trading System (ETS), a diverse and increasing vocal array of figures cutting across party lines has spoken out for an old-new way of cutting CO₂ emissions: a carbon tax.

The value of the world’s carbon market fell by 36% last year, according to Bloomberg New Energy Finance, the first annual contraction to hit the CO2 reduction mechanism since 2008.

The European Commission has moved swiftly to deny a Polish data analysis contending that plans to suspend - or ‘backload’ – 900 million carbon allowances from auction on the Emissions Trading System (ETS) will blow a hole in the revenues of new EU member states.

President Barack Obama signed a bill yesterday (27 November) shielding US airlines from paying for each tonne of carbon their planes emit flying into and out of Europe, despite a recent move by Europe to suspend its proposed measure for one year.

Carbon trading schemes are fast sprouting across the planet as a market-based way of addressing rising greenhouse gas emissions. But advocates should be prepared for powerful business backlashes, Chang-beom Kim, the South Korean ambassador to the EU, warned a Brussels round table of business leaders and envoys on 19 November.

EU Climate Commissioner Connie Hedegaard has put plans on hold to make international airlines pay for their carbon emissions, so as to give time for the UN airlines body to devise an alternative global scheme that could avoid a damaging trade dispute.

The council of the UN’s airline body, ICAO, will today (9 November) grapple with the dispute over how to make airlines pay for their carbon emissions, just months before EU law is due to oblige airlines to comply with its Emissions Trading System (ETS).

A leading MEP strongly reacted after the US Senate transport committee cleared a key vote on a measure that would ban American airlines from paying for their carbon emissions and participating in the EU’s controversial cap-and-trade scheme.

Indications that keenly-awaited details of the European Commission's plans to fix Europe’s depressed carbon market may be delayed until September sent carbon prices spiralling on 18 July.

EXCLUSIVE: At least one of the coal plants for which Poland is requesting €7 billion of free carbon allowances under the EU Emissions Trading System (ETS)’s little-known ‘10c derogation’ does not exist, a EurActiv investigation has found.

The Polish Chamber of Commerce (PCC) threw its weight behind Warsaw’s campaign against the EU’s decarbonisation goals for 2050 yesterday (26 June), launching a study which claims that Polish jobs, growth, inflation and the environment are under threat.

Global airlines today (11 June) urged the European Union to defuse an international emissions row as a group of nations led by China, the United States and India kept up their opposition to EU plans to force carriers to join a carbon trading scheme.

Europe’s airline executives launched a new salvo against the EU’s Emissions Trading System (ETS) yesterday (24 May), just weeks before an international working group is due to make new proposals aimed at resolving the dispute over pricing air carbon emissions.

Shell has joined with other ‘progressive’ businesses to lobby the EU for a much stronger carbon price to incentivise clean energy investments. But Graeme Sweeney insists that it will not compromise on its support for tar sands, gas, and opposition to new efficiency and renewables targets.

Analysts say that any one-off EU clearing of the massive glut of carbon permits now clogging the Emissions Trading System (ETS) is likely to lead to a ‘central bank' or other policy tool to manage future imbalances.

India will urge its airlines not to take part in the European Union Emissions Trading System (ETS), a senior government official said, the latest salvo in the row over an EU law requiring all flights in and out of Europe to pay for their emissions.

A Chinese diplomat said yesterday (8 March) Beijing is keen to avoid a trade conflict with Europe after Airbus accused the country of blocking purchases of its aircraft in retaliation for the EU’s Emissions Trading System (ETS).

A senior Shell executive has called for “decisive action” to recalibrate the Emissions Trading System (ETS), as a key European Parliament committee prepares to vote on a ‘set-aside’ of EU allowances in a bid to raise the carbon price.