On 15 March 2012, the European Parliament endorsed the European Commission’s Roadmap for moving to a competitive low carbon economy in 2050. The Roadmap set’s ‘milestones’ of 40%, 60% and 80% CO2 emission reductions by 2030, 2040 and 2050, respectively compared to 1990 levels.
The European Parliament considers these milestones as the basis for EU legislation. Because it considers the current carbon price too low, the Parliament also asks the Commission to intervene in the EU Emissions Trading System by:
– Presenting a report before 2013 on the impacts on incentives for investments in low carbon technologies and the risk of carbon leakage and, if appropriate, implement measures which may include ‘withholding’ allowances from the market (so-called ‘set aside’),
– increasing the linear reduction factor for the quantity of allowances which are put on the market annually as (currently 1.74%/y) as soon as possible to meet the requirements of the 2050 CO2 reduction target.
– Making an assessment on a floor price for the auctioning of allowances (minimum price which would have to be paid per emission allowance).
Eurofer is against interfering in the 3rd emissions trading period (2013-2020) or setting any unilateral targets for 2030 while other countries do not commit to comparable targets or a level playing field.
Eurofer welcomes the EP’s request not to reduce the level of free allowances for leakage sectors. However, for the steel industry, this level had been set by the Commission far below best performance.
EP resolution: http://www.europarl.europa.eu
Source: Eurofer Contact: [email protected]