About: CO2 targets Archives

EXCLUSIVE: The EU pledges funding worth billions of euros to the automotive industry up 2020 in a leaked draft of its cars strategy, to be presented today (8 November). The new strategy comes amid a wave of announced factory closures and lay-offs in the sector but was criticised by Green activists for lacking ambition on CO2 emission cuts.

Günther Oettinger, the EU’s energy commissioner, greeted the launch of a new coalition promoting renewables and gas power with a call to set fixed emissions reductions and clean energy targets for 2030.

EXCLUSIVE: Bioenergy production often increases greenhouse gas emissions in the short term even though the EU currently counts it as a carbon neutral technology, according to an unreleased EU report, which EURACTIV has obtained.

European biofuel mandates are unlikely to deliver a significant reduction and could even increase greenhouse gas emissions unless land use factors are considered, says a study by the International Council on Clean Transportation (ICCT).

The European Commission has announced a twin-track approach to fixing Europe’s depressed carbon market with a short-term ‘backloading’ of carbon allowances, to be followed by proposals for long-term structural change before the end of the year.

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.

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 European Commission is planning to re-introduce a clause for ‘super credits’ that would reward manufacturers that switch to electric cars with permits to make high-emitting gas guzzlers, EURACTIV understands. The controversial clause will be part of proposals for CO2 in Cars, due to be announced today (11 July).

The European Commission has yet to set a date for publishing plans to bolster the EU Emissions Trading System, but still aims to release them before the summer recess begins in August, a spokesman said yesterday (4 July).

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.

Six NGOs are calling for the European Commission to propose a ban on some uses of the most potent greenhouse gas known to humankind, sulphur hexafluoride (SF6), after a new report found that existing alternative technologies were no more expensive.

Brussels is poised to set two new carbon emissions targets that all new cars will need to meet by 2025 and 2030, as well as a standard of 95 grams of CO2 emissions per km (g/km) for 2020, according to a draft regulation seen by EURACTIV.

Europe must agree 2030 milestones as soon as possible to spur investment in renewable energy, or green power growth will fizzle once firm policy runs out in 2020, the European Commission said on Wednesday (6 June) in its latest strategy statement.

The International Energy Agency (IEA) has unveiled a ‘golden’ rulebook for the extraction of unconventional gases such as shale, which it says is needed to give them a 'social license to operate'.

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.

Ambitious fuel savings targets such as those proposed by the EU can cut motorists expenses by enormous sums, according to research conducted for Greenpeace by the former chief of the UK’s Environment Agency, Malcolm Fergusson.

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.

In an exclusive interview with EURACTIV, a top executive with Royal Dutch Shell, Europe’s largest oil and gas company, has set out a verdant stall for EU carbon market intervention, binding emissions reductions targets in 2030, and robust environmental criteria for biofuels.

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.

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.

The use of middlemen to leverage private sector climate cash is putting investments at risk because of the rich world’s negligence in ensuring transparency and adequate monitoring, according to a new report by the European Network on Debt and Development (Eurodad).

A review of the Emissions Trading System (ETS) has been brought forward a year, offering “a golden opportunity” for a re-examination of the current rules to prop up the depressed carbon market, said Connie Hedegaard, the EU's Climate Action commissioner.

Britain may have enough offshore shale gas to catapult it into the top ranks of global producers, energy experts now believe, and while production costs are still very high, new US technology should eventually make reserves commercially viable.