Tag: emissions trading scheme

Europe’s plan to decarbonise its economy by 2050 could be turned on its head at a summit today (22 May) if EU heads of state and government sign off on measures prioritising industrial competitiveness over climate change in draft conclusions seen by EurActiv.

SPECIAL REPORT / Heavy industries claim to be unfairly hit by rising energy prices caused by the EU's climate policies. But manufacturers are simultaneously being accused of profiteering from the bloc's Emissions Trading System (ETS) amidst controversy over the real impact of climate policies on industrial activity.

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.

The European Commission's proposal to fix the beleaguered Emissions Trading System (ETS) today (25 July) will include scenarios for ‘backloading’ a massive 400 million, 900 million, or 1.2 billion carbon allowances, EurActiv understands.

The European Union is "totally committed" to reaching a global deal on carbon emissions from airlines, the Commission said yesterday (12 July) as efforts resumed to defuse an international row over the issue.

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.

The European Commission has drawn up a list of 14 industrial sectors that will be eligible for special state aid to compensate for the increased cost of electricity due to the European Emission Trading System (ETS), according to a draft paper seen by EurActiv.

The recession has pushed down carbon prices and reduced incentives for companies to make further emission cuts and  invest in clean-technology innovation, threatening Europe's ambitious 2020 carbon reduction targets, argues Thomas Legge of the German Marshall Fund.

Boeing threw its weight behind Airbus in a dispute over European Union airline emissions on Thursday (22 March), announcing at the same time an agreement to develop and commercialise sustainable biofuels for use in airplanes.

The European Commission stood by its position in an ongoing dispute with China over plans to charge airlines flying to Europe for their carbon emissions, raising the stakes ahead of an EU-China summit in Beijing next week.

The European Parliament’s lead negotiator on a controversial plan to charge airlines for their carbon pollution criticised foreign carriers for “aggressiveness” in opposing the proposal, but expressed confidence that the EU’s top court would back the scheme’s legality in a ruling expected today (21 December).

At the UN climate summit in Durban later this year, the EU has a chance to broker a fair global deal to reduce emissions from international shipping, argues Oxfam's Tim Gore.

A predicted oversupply of 1.9 billion tonnes of carbon permits in the EU's emissions trading scheme (ETS) between now and 2020 is risking a carbon price slump, according to a report by the environmental NGO Sandbag.

Carbon market queasiness resurfaced yesterday (19 May) when a vote on plans to disguise the serial numbers of EU carbon allowances (EUAs) was postponed to give member states more time for debate.

Poland appears to have lost its fight to exempt new coal-fired power stations from paying for European Union emissions permits, an EU document showed on Tuesday (29 March).

Bulgaria, Ireland and Norway will reopen their national emissions registries today but security doubts have led two carbon spot markets – Climex and APX-ENDEX – to close their operations for good.

The European Union's spot carbon market reopened on Friday (4 February) after cyber attacks had forced a closure lasting more than two weeks, but was quiet as some traders expected further thefts of emissions permits.

Carbon credits gained by destroying controversial HFC-23 and nitrous oxide industrial gases will be banned from Europe's emissions trading scheme (ETS) after a vote by EU member-state representatives.

The European Union locked all accounts in its carbon market on Wednesday (19 January) after a security breach, seeking to protect the battered reputation of the EU's main weapon against climate change.

A new regulatory regime for dispensing around 100 billion euros of carbon permits has been approved by EU regulators, granting steelmakers and oil refineries free emission allowances in an effort to shield them from international competition after 2012.

As the UN climate summit in Cancún draws nearer, the EU is preparing a proposal to rein in the use of international carbon credits under its cap-and-trade system.

The European Commission has revised the EU's greenhouse gas emissions cap under its emissions trading scheme for 2013 in order to accommodate new sectors such as aluminium and petrochemicals.

'Root and branch' reform to the Common Agricultural Policy will be needed to equip the EU for the challenges of the 21^st century, writes Philippe Legrain, senior fellow for economics at the Lisbon Council and author of 'Aftershock: Reshaping the world economy after the crisis'.

The European Commission's climate department yesterday (9 September) announced it had identified some 50 product benchmarks for allocating free CO2 emission permits to industry amounting to around €100 billion until 2020.