News & Press
By Miriam Vicente Marcos on 25 Feb 2021
Taking aim at the economic and climate crises – but do member states’ recovery plans really hit the target?
Italy, Spain, Hungary, and Romania’s National Recovery and Resilience Plans (NRRPs) may well be off-target (and Poland hasn’t published one yet). By not covering in sufficient detail all aspects of the green transition in their plans, these member states could be missing out on the chance to use EU recovery funds to tackle the economic…
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By Kaisa Amaral, Sam Van den plas on 25 Feb 2021
Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger [1]
Two key elements to get right in the EU carbon market review The upcoming revision of the EU carbon market rules is an opportunity to ensure that industries covered by it cut their pollution in line with the EU Green Deal objectives and the Paris Climate Agreement. Agreeing on a faster pace at which emissions…
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By Kaisa Amaral on 20 Jan 2021
Carbon Market Watch agenda – Spring-Summer 2021
Carbon Market Watch agenda outlines our priorities and key political milestones for the next months. Download here
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By Kaisa Amaral on 11 Dec 2020
EU leaders’ 2030 target deal ignores Europe’s climate responsibility
BRUSSELS 11 December 2020. EU leaders have agreed a net 55% emissions reduction goal for 2030. While this replaces the outdated 40% goal, the target is not in line with the Paris Agreement[1] and Europe’s historic responsibility to cut emissions. Relying on forests and land to reach the target also means that in reality, EU…
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By Kaisa Amaral on 26 Nov 2020
UN shipping body torpedoes its own climate strategy
As the global efforts to cut CO2 pollution from ships hit the wall, regions and countries must step up. In Europe, work to bring the sector under the bloc’s carbon market is ongoing, but slowing down. Earlier this month, the UN shipping agency International Maritime Organisation (IMO) approved a draft plan to cut CO2 pollution…
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By Agnese Ruggiero, Gilles Dufrasne on 25 Nov 2020
EU carbon market report underlines the need to end pollution handouts
While the EU carbon market is helping to clean up Europe’s power sector, industrial CO2 pollution remained stubbornly high, and that from aviation kept growing in 2019. This is partly due to overly generous handouts of pollution permits. These subsidies must be phased out to incentivise cleaner production and more sustainable transport as the scheme…
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By Wijnand Stoefs on 29 Oct 2020
EU Commission waters down carbon market state aid rules to please large polluters
The final EU carbon market state aid rules will ensure massive handouts of taxpayer money to large polluting industries such as oil refineries and plastic producers over the next decade. The EU ETS state aid guidelines for 2021-2030 set the framework for EU countries to compensate their electricity-intensive industries deemed at risk of ‘carbon leakage’…
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By Ilaria Buttu, Gilles Dufrasne on 29 Oct 2020
Airlines continue to push against climate policies as EU Commission proposes new rules
Airlines have been hit hard by the pandemic induced economic slowdown and travel restrictions, but are also using the situation as an excuse to lobby even harder against climate regulations. As the EU works on its aviation climate package, it must ensure that – like other transport modes – the sector pays for its pollution…
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“Offsetting must not be a license to continue polluting”
We joined the World Press Clubs Alliance for Climate launch event on Friday 23 October. Watch the interview with Sabine Frank here. Companies and governments are announcing “climate-neutrality” targets, and consumers are being offered ways to offset their carbon footprint. What does this mean in practice? How can we distinguish between real climate action and…
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Watch This! - Civil Society Newsletter
By Andrew Coiley on 21 Oct 2020
Watch This! Civil Society Newsletter Q3
Ambitious EU/China climate news muted amid COVID chaos Dear members, friends & colleagues, Welcome to this quarter’s edition of the Watch This, a civil society newsletter by Carbon Market Watch. In this edition we look at some big climate announcements that have struggled to get the recognition they deserve during these increasingly troubling times. In an interview with my…
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