ETS reform
In a vote on December 10, the European Parliament agreed to implement a plan to restructure the Emissions Trading Scheme, which is the system to cap the overall level of CO2 emissions allowed across the EU. It also allows companies to buy and sell ‘allowances’, where each allowance represents one tonne of Carbon dioxide. All CO2 emitting companies are obliged to buy the allowances under the ETS, and so the less a company emits CO2, the less it will need to buy. Consequently, companies are encouraged to invest in producing less emissions.
However, emission projections are a third lower than originally projected when current caps were set. Therefore, there is an excess of 2.2 billion tonnes of CO2 allowances in the market, which means lower costs.
Today’s vote postpones the auctioning of 900 million carbon allowances (backloading). While this result is welcome, it doesn't address fundamental problems within the ETS. According to Green climate change spokesperson Bas Eickhout MEP, “backloading is only a stop-gap measure to buy time for more fundamental structural reform of the scheme.
“With this measure unlikely to have any major impact on the artificially low carbon price, the Commission must now urgently move to propose more structural reforms to the EU carbon market. This implies permanently retiring allowances and increasing the outdated 2020 EU emissions reduction target, and increase it to at least 30%.”
Read the Green Group's press release here.
Fisheries
In a seperate vote, MEPs have failed to back proposals to phase-out destructive bottom trawling.
Commenting after the vote, Green fisheries spokesperson Raul Romeva said: "Today's vote on EU deep sea fishing rules is totally overshadowed by the failure of MEPs to back proposals to phase-out destructive bottom trawling and gill nets. The devastation caused by these indiscriminate fishing practices on sensitive environments - like sea beds and reefs - as well as on threatened species has been well-documented. Contrary to the bogus arguments against a phase-out, used by a loud but unrepresentative lobby, these proposals will only affect a handful of EU boats but will have enormous environmental benefits. Sadly, MEPs have swallowed the lobbying, hook, line and sinker.”
The Green amendment of phasing out bottom trawling and gill nets was defeated with 342 votes against, 326 in favour.
Read the Green Group's press release here.