“Emissions scheme; setback for EU carbon trading reform”

The EU Emissions Trading System (ETS) amendment proposal passed by the environmental committee in the European Parliament (EP) in December 2016 angers German industry, writes Klaus Stratmann for Handelsblatt Global Edition. “Even our most efficient industrial plant will have cost increases imposed. And that only helps non-European manufacturers with substantially inferior carbon-emissions performance,” Hans Jürgen Kerkhoff, president of the German Steel Federation (WV Stahl), told Handelsblatt. The EP committee wants to allocate more free CO₂ certificates to energy intensive businesses than the EU Commission had proposed, but further reduce the total number of emission allowances. “It will mean industry increasingly shifts production to other areas of the world. The Chinese, Americans and Indians will be delighted. And the climate will not benefit in any way,” Michael Fuchs, the parliamentary vice-chairman of the centre-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU) said.

Read the article (behind paywall) in English here.

For background read the CLEW factsheet Understanding the European Union’s Emissions Trading System.