More energy-intensive industries will pollute for free after 2015

by Miriam Vicente MarcosEU carbon marketPosted on Comments are Disabled

The European Commission has unveiled a list of 175 industries that will receive protection from the costs of climate change policies (“carbon leakage”) up to 2019. Surprisingly more financial support will be handed over to energy-intensive firms, despite there being no evidence for the occurrence of carbon leakage so far. Carbon Market Watch calls upon the European Parliament and Member States to reject the new list. Energy-intensive industries should not be allowed to pollute for free and therefore other measures to address carbon leakage should be developed for the post-2020 period.

New research urges accounting fixes for future climate policies

by Miriam Vicente MarcosGlobal marketsPosted on Comments are Disabled

New research shows that a new climate deal must be based on multi-year, not annual, emissions budgets and comprehensively revised accounting rules to ensure the environmental integrity of targets and markets. In particular the reports call for an end to so-called double-counting of emissions cuts sold through offsetting mechanisms whereby the issuing and purchasing country both count a project’s emissions savings towards their targets.