Rescuing the EU Carbon Market – EU-ETS Video infographic

15 Jan 2013

IIEA

 

 

The EU is at the forefront of the fight against climate change. But the EU Emissions Trading Scheme – Europe’s flagship tool to reduce greenhouse gas emissions – is floundering. See this previous IIEA blog.

The market is awash with surplus allowances, which has led to a depressed carbon price. This does not create the right incentives for low carbon growth. But how is the market malfunctioning? What is the diagnosis? And how can Europe rescue the ailing scheme and deliver effective climate policy?

Our latest production combines motion infographics and interviews with key stakeholders to explore the problems in the EU Emission Trading Scheme and the future of EU Climate Policy.

Interviewees include Sanjeev Kumar, Senior Associate with E3G (Third Generation Environmentalism), Susan Shannon, Senior EU Affairs Manager at Shell and Neil Walker, Head of Energy and Environmental Policy at IBEC (The Irish Business Employers Confederation).

Negotiations on the ETS

The European Commission’s short-term rescue bid is currently being negotiated by the European Parliament and the Council. The Irish EU Presidency is hoping to broker a deal on this issue in the first half of 2013. The European Parliament’s ENVI committee is set to consider the issue at its meeting on 19 February 2013. The rapporteur’s report  by ENVI Committee Chairman, Matthias Groote (S&D, Germany) gives an indication of where this debate is going (see here.) While the report is broadly supportive of the European Commission’s position on amending the EU-ETS, the report also proposes constraints on the Commission’s right to intervene in the carbon market by proposing that intervention should only happen “in exceptional  circumstances” and stresses that intervention should be seen only as a interim precursor to longer-term structural reform.

Some proposals for longer-term reform are already on the table from the Commission. But are these solutions enough? And are they tackling the right problem?

This content is part of the IIEA Environment Nexus, co-funded by the European Parliament.

As an independent forum, the Institute does not express any opinions of its own. The views expressed in the article are the sole responsibility of the author.