On 23 and 24 October 2014, EU’s Heads of State will determine Europe’s future action to avoid dangerous global temperature rise. It is expected that they will propose to reduce Europe’s domestic greenhouse gas emissions by merely 40% below 1990 levels by 2030. While this target is not nearly enough to combat climate change, some governments …
Read more “Europe’s leaders must protect the 2030 climate target from loopholes”
For the last couple of years, the European carbon market has failed to provide a signal for decarbonisation with carbon prices hovering around 5 euros for a tonne of CO2. To address this, earlier this year, the European Commission proposed to reform the EU’s Emissions Trading System (EU ETS) in order to provide a more …
Read more “EU carbon market reforms must go further and arrive sooner”
While Europe is trying to get its emissions trading system (ETS) out of the doldrums, China is busily preparing to launch its national carbon market. By 2020, China’s carbon market will have surpassed the EU ETS as the world’s largest carbon market, covering around 3 to 4 billion tonnes of CO2. South Korea, which in …
Read more “Capping the Dragon: prospects for Chinese and European emissions trading linkage”
On 24 September the European Parliament’s Environment committee, voted down an objection to the European Commission’s new carbon leakage list, 34 to 30. The objection was lodged by Green MEP Bas Eickhout and argued that the proposed €30 per tonne carbon price, used in determining which sectors are placed on the list, was grossly inflated. …
In early September, the council conclusions on the 2030 climate and energy framework were leaked. Worryingly, the draft text stated that the current practice of giving free pollution permits to heavy emitters needs to be maintained while “dynamically” allocating these permits based on actual production levels. A rebuttal by Carbon Market Watch shows that this approach could result in EU taxpayers paying industry an extra €130 billion worth of free emission allowances, while the public have never been presented proof that carbon leakage actually exists.
Carbon leakage is the situation in which, as a result of stringent climate policies, companies move their production abroad to countries with less ambitious climate measures, which can lead to a rise in global greenhouse gas emissions. In Europe, the EU Emission Trading System (EU ETS) covers the greenhouse gas emissions from the industry and …
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.
Yesterday, the European Commission released new data on the number and origin of carbon offsets used in 2013 by companies in the EU Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS). Despite new eligibility criteria that took effect in 2013 which should incentivise investments in Least Developed Countries (LDCs), the majority of offsets come from projects in China, Ukraine and Russia. Only 0.04% of offsets used came from LDCs.
Today, the European Commission released data on the number of international offsets used in 2013 by companies in the EU Emissions Trading Scheme (EU ETS). Unlike previous years, the European Commission only released aggregate information which means it is no longer possible to check the origin of the 133 million offsets that entered the EU ETS in 2013. Carbon Market Watch, Sandbag Climate Campaign and the Climate Market & Investment Association (CMIA) strongly condemn this lack in transparency as it significantly reduces civil society’s ability to scrutinize the carbon offset projects that were used.
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