Under the EU Emissions Trading System (EU ETS) the power sector no longer receives allowances for free but is required to purchase them from auctioning. An exception is made through the so called Article 10c of the EU ETS Directive. This provision allows lower-income Member States from Central and Eastern Europe to give allowances for free to electricity installations under the condition that they invest at least the equivalent monetary value of the free allowances in the modernisation and diversification of their energy systems.
A global climate deal was adopted last December in Paris, in which all countries agreed to take action on climate change. The Paris agreement is unique as it represents a historically significant milestone that aims to pursue efforts to limit global temperature rises to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels.
Brussels 22 April 2016. Today at least 160 countries – and the EU – gather in New York to sign a landmark climate deal with an ambitious target to limit global warming to 1.5°C above preindustrial levels. On this occasion, 23 organisations urge EU leaders to ensure that Europe’s largest climate instrument will be made coherent with the Paris agreement. Other key areas where the EU needs to deliver are the EU Emissions Trading System, and emissions from aviation.
What this consultation is about: The Commission’s State of the Energy Union presented on 18 November 2015 states that “[t]he Energy Union needs a reliable and transparent governance process, anchored in legislation, to make sure that energy related actions at European, regional, national and local level all contribute to the Energy Union’s objectives.” This corresponds to similar calls …
Read more “Consultation on streamlining of planning and reporting obligations as part of the Energy Union governance”
The polluter-pays principle is supposed to promote less polluting habits, including greenhouse gas emission reductions. However, carbon pricing cannot deliver its intended results by itself. To fully exploit its potential to speed up the decarbonisation of Europe, carbon pricing must be framed in an overall supportive policy context.
The crisis facing the British steel industry has over the past week dominated front pages with the news that Tata Steel will sell all of its UK plants. Some have finger-pointed to the EU’s Emissions Trading System (EU ETS) as one of the reasons for the disarray in the steel industry, but analysis done for Carbon Market Watch and by others has shown that the steel sector in Europe has in fact benefited from EU’s climate policies.
This policy brief interprets the findings of a new study by CE Delft that shows how energy-intensive companies in Sweden have massively profited from their pollution to the count of €700 million because they are deemed to be at risk of “carbon leakage”. “Carbon leakage” refers to a hypothetical situation where companies transfer production to countries with weaker climate policies in order to lower their costs. Under the current EU Emissions Trading System (EU ETS) rules, industrial companies that are believed to be at risk of “carbon leakage” are awarded free pollution permits.
This policy brief interprets the findings of a new study by CE Delft that shows how energy-intensive companies in the Netherlands have massively profited from their pollution to the count of €1 billion because they are deemed to be at risk of “carbon leakage”. “Carbon leakage” refers to a hypothetical situation where companies transfer production to countries with weaker climate policies in order to lower their costs. Under the current EU Emissions Trading System (EU ETS) rules, industrial companies that are believed to be at risk of “carbon leakage” are awarded free pollution permits.
This policy brief interprets the findings of a new study by CE Delft that shows how energy-intensive companies in Germany have massively profited from their pollution to the count of €4.5 billion because they are deemed to be at risk of “carbon leakage”. “Carbon leakage” refers to a hypothetical situation where companies transfer production to countries with weaker climate policies in order to lower their costs. Under the current EU Emissions Trading System (EU ETS) rules, industrial companies that are believed to be at risk of “carbon leakage” are awarded free pollution permits.
