Parliament renders ETS impotent

The proposal sought to send a signal of confidence on the future of the carbon price by ‘back-loading’ or postponing emissions allowances from 2013-2015 until later in phase three of the ETS, which ends in 2020.

“By failing to support the ETS, the European Parliament is contradicting its own goals of providing Europe with a secure, clean and affordable climate and energy framework towards 2020”, said EREC’s Secretary General, Josche Muth, commenting on today’s plenary vote in Strasbourg.

“The rejection of the  Commission’s proposal to postpone the auction of 900 million allowances effectively renders the ETS impotent as a tool for shifting investments into less polluting generation technologies”, he added. The amount of electricity generated from coal is rising at annualised rates of as much as 50% in some Member States, which is, to a large extent, due to the very low CO2 price. Since coal is by the far the most polluting source of electricity, this belittles European environmental and climate aspirations.

“The onus now falls on the European Council to show leadership on climate and energy by providing ambitious and binding 2030 targets for renewables, efficiency and emissions reductions”, said Josche Muth. “The correct political vision could unlock investments and give new impetus for emissions reductions today and in the longer term”.