Monday

20th Mar 2023

Activists slam tweak to EU carbon allowance scheme

  • According to the EU, infrastructure covered by the existing Emissions Trading Scheme reduced emissions by some 35 percent between 2005 and 2019 (Photo: Vattenfall)
Listen to article

The EU is set to revise its carbon Emissions Trading System (ETS) at Monday's (20 December) environment council meeting.

Ahead of the ministerial meeting, environmental groups sent a joint letter urging them to "uphold the polluter pays principle, as enshrined in EU law when reforming the ETS."

Read and decide

Join EUobserver today

Become an expert on Europe

Get instant access to all articles — and 20 years of archives. 14-day free trial.

... or subscribe as a group

"Polluting for free in times of a climate crisis is untenable," says Sam Van den Plas, policy director at Carbon Market Watch, one of the signatories of the letter.

Under its ETS system, the EU has already issued over €200bn in free emissions permits, Carbon Market Watch said.

The European Commission is now proposing €5bn in new permits, representing "hundreds of billions of euros" of additional free allowances.

"If the EU wants ETS to work, it should scrap the subsidies and make 'polluters-pay' the true price of their pollution," notes Agnese Ruggiero, policy officer at the NGO.

Carbon permits are licences companies can use or trade, allowing them a certain amount of carbon dioxide emissions.

The number of allowances is set to decline by 2.2 percent per year over the period 2021 to 2030, compared to 1.74 percent currently.

According to the commission, this will "increase the pace of emissions cuts," but environmental groups say the decrease is too minor.

"We want a one-off reduction of €450m emission allowances and a reduction factor of 3.1 percent on an annual basis starting from 2023," Ruggiero said.

The scrapping of these effectively 'free pollution' licences would ensure that the polluter pays and increase revenues for member states.

"The revenues generated from auctioning ETS allowances would bring member states the much-needed resources to invest in the green transition while also protecting the most vulnerable households from high energy prices," said Ruggiero.

Allowances have been one of the prominent debates surrounding ETS since its inception in 2005.

According to the EU, infrastructure covered by the existing ETS reduced emissions by about 35 percent between 2005 and 2019.

However, allocating free permits to some member states and companies provides for a fairer transition, but it also prolongs polluting companies' lives.

Last year, the EU Court of Auditors ruled that permits need a rethink because they are not targeted at the right industries.

"Free allowances should be targeted at those industrial sectors least able to pass on carbon costs to consumers. But, this is not the case," said lead auditor Samo Jereb at the time.

Auditors found power plants, and industrial companies, invest in more fossil-fuel efficiency and not clean energy due to these free allowances.

Political fight

With carbon allowances soaring to over €90 a tonne, Polish prime minister Mateusz Morawiecki denounced it as a European energy tax at the European Council summit last week.

Leading a group of mainly eastern European member states, he called for the ETS system to be suspended due to its high price.

"The high price of CO2 allowances is causing economic destabilisation, and this is hindering the implementation of EU climate policy," he later wrote in an op-ed.

However, according to data tweeted by by EU Commission president Ursula von der Leyen on Thursday (17 December), the carbon tax only accounts for 10 percent of the price surge, which - according to spot market data - is overwhelmingly caused by high gas prices.

Another political fight is expected to centre around the proposed systems' extension to include housing and shipping, and imposing stricter limits on emitters.

The expansion of the ETS scheme to include housing and transport will significantly raise fuel and energy prices for households in the coming years. The commission has proposed a social climate fund to cushion these effects. Stricter emissions standards for buildings and transport may also mitigate higher prices.

Opinion

Hungary: Why we oppose carbon price, but back gas

Together with several other central and eastern European (CEE) countries, we do not support the introduction of a single EU carbon price for all sectors - because this could significantly increase the overhead costs for CEE households.

MEPs agree carbon border tax - heavy industries protected

Green groups warned that if heavy industry continues to receive free allowances even after a carbon border levy is in place, this would essentially be a double subsidy for those sectors. "The European Commission must correct this," the WWF warned.

EU watchdog: no proof of carbon market manipulation

The EU watchdog has found no proof of manipulation of the carbon markets, allaying European Commission fears. However, the European Securities and Markets Authority did note that it had only limited access to essential data.

Poland threatens to veto EU's Fit for 55

Poland's climate minister threatened to veto the bloc's landmark climate policy Fit for 55, with Portugal accusing others of lies over consumer energy prices.

Netherlands warns against EU carbon credit sell-off

Selling more carbon credits to industry — as EU Commission plans have proposed — could increase pollution and "undermines" trust in the bloc's carbon markets, Dutch finance minister Sigrid Kaag warned.

Latest News

  1. 'Final warning' to act on climate change, warns IPCC
  2. 'No one is unemployable': the French social experiment
  3. Why can't we stop marches glorifying Nazism on EU streets?
  4. Op-ed debate: Should NGOs be subject to stricter transparency regulation?
  5. 'Forever chemicals' industry hit by perfect storm
  6. EU summit zooms in on global roles This WEEK
  7. EU launches 'Hydrogen Bank' — but what is it?
  8. MEPs probing spyware 'stonewalled' by EU states

Stakeholders' Highlights

  1. Nordic Council of MinistersNordic and Baltic ways to prevent gender-based violence
  2. Nordic Council of MinistersCSW67: Economic gender equality now! Nordic ways to close the pension gap
  3. Nordic Council of MinistersCSW67: Pushing back the push-back - Nordic solutions to online gender-based violence
  4. Nordic Council of MinistersCSW67: The Nordics are ready to push for gender equality
  5. Promote UkraineInvitation to the National Demonstration in solidarity with Ukraine on 25.02.2023
  6. Azerbaijan Embassy9th Southern Gas Corridor Advisory Council Ministerial Meeting and 1st Green Energy Advisory Council Ministerial Meeting

Join EUobserver

Support quality EU news

Join us