European Union Emission Trading Scheme (EU ETS)

carbon revenue

Whether it is via the auction of allowances or the taxation of carbon emissions, climate policy is increasingly being seen as a source of revenue into the national treasury.[read more]

EU ETS/shutterstock

The uncomfortable reality is that no policies have been put in place anywhere in the world that have indicated an ability to accelerate rates of decarbonization to levels approaching 5 percent per year. This includes the EU ETS.[read more]

possible ETS futures?

While backloading was never the complete solution to the problems faced by the ETS, it could have given it enough momentum to pave the way to a more robust and economically efficient climate policy framework.[read more]

EU carbon market

Yesterday, the European Union Parliament rejected a proposal to backload (or postpone) the auctioning of additional credits within the EU Emissions Trading Scheme.[read more]

Despite its green energy credentials, Europe has ramped up its consumption of coal. Ironically, the very policies that the continent has built its environmentalist reputation on — vigorous support for renewables — may be crowding out its best chances for reducing emissions, given its return to coal: carbon capture and storage.[read more]

Sonja Van Renssen, leading environment journalist for viEUws - the EU Policy Broadcaster , met with the European Commission's Director General for Climate Action, Jos Delbeke, to discuss proposals for fixing the European Union's Emissions Trading Scheme(ETS).“If there is a consensus, or a quasi-consensus...[read more]

Europe via Shutterstock

With any luck we are about to see a shift in action on curbing carbon emissions. It's not just that the annual United Nations climate change talks, COP-18, begin at the end of this month at Doha in Qatar. Nor is it that with the re-election of Barack Obama there will be a renewed impetus in the American Senate to get a climate change...[read more]

The European Commission will launch a shipping emissions monitoring system early next year, in a move widely seen as postponement of action to reduce emissions. In a disgraceful abdication of its responsibilities, its solution 'might' form the basis for bringing shipping into a maritime emissions trading scheme or imposing bunker fuel levies.[read more]

Coal Power Plant via Shutterstock

A funny thing is happening on the way to the clean energy future.  While the US government wages a regulatory war on coal fired generation, in Europe, the land of the oh so politically correct the drive for greenhouse gas emissions reduction is meeting a new competitor—-reality!The EU emissions trading scheme had fallen on hard...[read more]

Last week the Australian Government and the European Commission announced that their respective emission trading systems would link up progressively over Phase III of the EU system, but for Australian entities from the start of full carbon allowance trading in 2015. This is a bold move by both parties and quite possibly one that will make others with nascent trading systems sit up and think about where they want to go.[read more]

With an allowance surplus building up in the EU ETS and a resulting low carbon price, the urgent need for commercial deployment of CCS has diminished. Furthermore, with natural gas availability growing and renewable energy becoming a sizable factor in the EU electricity mix, it may be well into the 2020s before large scale deployment of CCS is necessary.[read more]

A year ago as the EU ETS price showed clear signs of a second step change downwards, the EU Commission was resolute in its view that the mechanism was working. But a year is a very long time in business and politics and this week, with the backing and support of many business groups, the EU Commission began the political process necessary to attempt to address the problems.[read more]

Very recently I participated in the launch of a new report on the state of the EU Emissions Trading System. The report highlights in stark terms the problems facing the ETS today and calls for even more drastic measures than those currently under consideration by the European Commission.[read more]

chuong/Shutterstock

There has been considerable discussion over recent months as to what action needs to be taken both in the short and long term to ensure that the EU ETS continues to provide the necessary investment signal for major investments such as carbon capture and storage. The current price of €6.50 isn’t going to drive any change at all.[read more]

Stephen Finn/Shutterstock

A Senate Transportation Committee hearing tomorrow will be the latest show of ire against the European Union’s effort to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from international aviation through its mandatory Emission Trading System (EU ETS). From Beijing to Delhi to Washington, governments claim the EU’s unilateral move violates...[read more]