With its focus on tonnes of carbon dioxide discharged into the atmosphere, the EU’s Emissions Trading System can appear to be technical and immaterial to most people. To uncover the human dimension of the EU ETS, with its challenges and opportunities, Carbon Market Watch and The Green Tank, visited Greece’s main lignite-producing region as it …
This policy document outlines recommendations for how the EU’s Emissions Trading System (EU ETS) EU can help the EU decarbonise its economy by 2040. It was submitted in response to the European Commission’s public consultation on the EU climate target for 2040.
In order to achieve this 2040 goal, the EU needs to raise its ambition now, not after 2030. Even though the ‘Fit for 55’ package of policy measures was only agreed at the end of 2022, it has one fundamental flaw which undermines its ability to deliver on the EU’s climate goals for this decade: it aims for a net decrease in emissions of at least 55% by 2030, at a time when the science clearly shows we need gross cuts of at least 65%. ‘Fit for 55’ needs to become ‘Fit for 65’ as soon as possible. The EU has run up a serious carbon deficit, this urgently requires the wise allocation of our remaining budget.
Following the revamping of the EU’s Emissions Trading System, the associated Innovation Fund also requires an overhaul to ensure it serves the purpose of accelerating decarbonisation. Here are Carbon Market Watch’s and Sandbag’s recommendations.
The steel industry’s strategic importance coupled with its strong lobbying power have combined to shield it from a tightening of the Emissions Trading System. This is harmful to the climate, unfair to taxpayers and hurts the sector’s long-term competitiveness.
The EU must ignore lobbying efforts from industry to certify the storage of carbon dioxide in cement or concrete as carbon removals.
Although the enlarged Emissions Trading System will impose a cost on emissions from buildings, the revenues it generates should be used to decarbonise European homes and to eradicate energy poverty. Some trailblazing projects showcase these possibilities.
EU environment ministers will soon hammer out their position on the revision of one of the largest and most impactful environmental policies in Europe, the Industrial Emissions Directive. One crucial element seems to have been left out yet again: the regulation of greenhouse gas emissions.
The debate on EU industrial subsidies in the face of the US Inflation Reduction Act and against the backdrop of the Emissions Trading System (EU ETS) and Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) deals raises some uncomfortable questions.
The long process that was meant to transform the EU’s Emissions Trading System into an effective tool for climate action has culminated in a final deal that will not reduce Europe’s industrial carbon footprint rapidly enough to tackle the climate crisis. The reformed EU ETS lavishes freebies on polluting industries and leaves households and taxpayers with the bill.
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