Permanent carbon dioxide removal (CDR) is a necessary climate tool that the EU will need to utilise to reach climate neutrality and net-negative emissions. But mitigation deterrence is a key issue: removals should not lead to a slowdown of emission reduction efforts and results. CDR must complement, not substitute, emission reductions. However, the European Commission’s …
With all the free allowances the European Union’s chemical sector receives under the EU’s Emissions Trading System, it effectively pays no carbon price for its pollution, which is grossly unfair and counterproductive. The EU Emissions Trading System (EU ETS) has helped successfully reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from covered sectors by half since 2005. This …
Read more “Bad chemistry: How the chemical sector escapes EU carbon pricing”
Aviation continues to enjoy massive tax privileges, dodging around €20 billion in taxation every year through exemptions on kerosene and no VAT on tickets. These loopholes are fundamentally incompatible with the EU’s climate objectives and the polluter-pays principle, which require proper taxation and carbon pricing. The exemptions underscore the need to extend the EU ETS to long-haul flights.
The regular update of the benchmark values for free allowances under the EU ETS is a necessary step to ensure that the last years of the free allocation system are fully coherent with the aim of a full phase-out by 2034 for all sectors, and provide the investment signals necessary to funnel funding into industrial …
The International Civil Aviation Organisation hailed its Carbon Offsetting and Reduction Scheme for International Aviation (CORSIA) as a global, harmonised answer to aviation’s growing climate impact. Yet the reality is very different: patchy enforcement, limited coverage, and heavy reliance on problematic offsetting with carbon credits.
In its efforts to placate heavy industry, the European Commission’s latest proposed changes to the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism serve no environmental purpose. It’s time to refocus the CBAM on the climate.
After initially backing the EU’s planned Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM), EU industry has grown increasingly hostile to the carbon levy as the prospect of losing their free allowances under the EU’s Emissions Trading System (EU ETS) looms closer, according to an InfluenceMap analysis requested by Carbon Market Watch.
The European Union has struck a deal on its 2040 climate target which, on paper, maintains the headline goal of slashing emissions by 90% but allows loopholes and backdoors that will result in hundreds of millions of tonnes of additional domestic emissions.
An introductory guide to the ETS2 (Emissions Trading System for buildings and road transport), and the Social Climate Fund.
Stay in touch and receive our monthly newsletter, campaign updates, event invites and more.
