EU’s emissions trading scheme ‘back on track’

Reforms aim to 'reiterate support' for scheme

The European Union’s system for helping countries reduce their carbon emissions is back on track despite criticism from Conservative MPs and business lobbyists.

The emission trading scheme (ETS) has been reformed to make it more effective and will be debated in the European Parliament sometime in April. However, there has been criticism from Conservative MEPs, two of whom defied David Cameron and voted against the reforms. There has been speculation that the reforms could end up being ‘watered down’ by the time they make it to the parliament vote.

The EST in its current form has failed due to low permit prices

(Image source - ABC)

In their current form, the reforms will hold back some of the EST carbon trading permits until 2019 in an attempt to stop the over-supply of permits and raise the cost of carbon emissions. The original scheme was designed to reduce the carbon emissions of countries by making them buy permits to allow them to release carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, with the view that the cost of permits would make countries want to lower their emissions and invest in renewable energy technologies. However, the scheme has been seen as a failure because of the low cost of these permits, along with the fact that many of them were given away for free. 

The reforms would introduce a system of ‘backloading’, which would hold back permits from auction for several years. Rob Elsworth, policy officer at the campaign group Sandbag, said: "The road to structural reform of the ETS starts with backloading. Today's vote puts us firmly on that road. What's more it reiterates support for the EU's flagship climate policy, the ETS. Abandoning it at this point would have left the EU with an even more politically charged debate around alternatives."

Government home energy ‘dithering’ could damage UK housing industry

Plans were supposed to be launched in April but have been delayed until the autumn

Experts have warned that delays to schemes to make new homes in the UK more energy efficient could damage the housing industry in the long run.

A timetable was drawn up to make sure all new homes were ‘zero-carbon’ by 2016, with an ‘uplift’ to current energy efficient was due to be introduced in April. However, those proposals have been delayed until the autumn, leaving workers in the construction industry in the dark over new housing projects. Many companies fear that money used to purchase new equipment and training will be wasted if the government doesn’t confirm its intentions and stick to its home energy efficiency targets.

Housing experts fear Government delays in home energy proposals are damaging the industry

(Image source - Telegraph)

Andrew Warren, director of the Association for the Conservation of Energy said companies and investors were growing increasingly concerned about the silence from government. "Companies have been going to the City to get investment, to enable them to meet the targets, do the training they need and create jobs, and they were doing so based on the timetable set out. If it doesn't happen on time, companies are vulnerable," he said. "This is the real world and I'm getting bored of explaining this to ministers. Business will waste time and money unless government delivers."

This lack of clarity and silence from the Government over the 2016 target, despite still official being dedicated to achieving it, is preventing the construction of new homes, as well as putting off new potential investors in the UK housing industry. A spokesman for the Department of Communities and Local Government (DCLG) said the government's timetable had always been to publish the regulations in spring and introduce them in the autumn, but industry experts said the original timetable had been an April introduction.

Carbon emissions fall in US

Lowest level since 1994

Carbon dioxide emissions in America fell to their lowest level since 1994 last year.

A report compiled by Bloomberg New Energy Finance for the Business Council for Sustainable Energy (BCSE) shows that emissions fell by 13% over the past five years as a result of investment in new energy-saving technologies and renewable energy.

Despite the widely-held view that Obama is failing in climate change policy, emissions in the US have fallen

(Image source - www.scientificamerican.com)

This fall brings the country more than halfway towards its target of cutting emissions by 17% of 2005 levels over the next decade, despite the fact that many claim that Congress and President Obama have failed to act efficiently on the issue of climate change. Obama can now use these figures to show that America is going in the right direction in terms of dealing with climate change and may improve the country’s standing in global climate negotiations. 

Ethan Zindler, a BCSE analyst said, ‘There have certainly been some solid results on the board in the US as a result of all these changes’. This view is also held by the president of the BCSE, Lisa Jacobsen, who believes the Bloomberg findings prove wrong the Conservative argument that acting on climate change would damage the economy, as GDP continued to rise even as emissions went down.

The report highlighted that the steadily expanding installation of wind, solar, hydro and geothermal energy projects represented the largest single source of new growth last year, reaching $44bn in 2012. The reduction of carbon emissions in America was also helped by 488,000 citizens who opted for a hybrid/plug-in vehicle last year.

What will Obama do about Keystone?

With majority of Senate backing pipeline plans, President faces tough decision

President Barack Obama is facing pressure to go back on his climate change promise as a bipartisan majority in the Senate has called for the controversial Keystone XL pipeline to go ahead.

A letter from 53 senators, a group made up of both Democrats and Republicans, claimed there was no reason to deny approval of the project as it has undergone in-depth environmental review despite protests from campaigners who believe the pipeline, which will pump crude oil from Alberta Tar Sands in Canada to oil refineries in Texas, will lead to higher carbon emissions. 

Whatever Obama decides on the project, the decision will upset a lot of people

(Image source - ABC News)

Keystone leaves Obama in a very difficult position, having pledged to tackle climate change during his second term as President. Denying the project will anger many politicians, who see Keystone as way of providing more energy and creating jobs, but approving it will be seen by environmental campaigners as going back on his word. However, Henry Waxman, a congressman who has set up a taskforce on climate change with senator Sheldon Whitehouse and is against the pipeline, denies that the issue will be ‘make-or-break’ for Obama, saying ‘This is only a small issue compared to the overall objective that the president and we want to achieve," Waxman said. "What would you like me to do? Should I say to the president, 'If you don't agree with me on Keystone, I'm not going to work with you on solving the climate change issue'? That would be a little bit childish and counterproductive’.

Waxman’s views that Keystone is a small issue are held by many others, including the Washington Post, who in an editorial called on the President to ‘ignore the activists who have bizarrely made Keystone XL a line-in-the-sand issue, when there are dozens more of far greater environmental impact’.

Backbench rebellion over energy bill?

'Decarbonisation target must be included' say MPs

Fears of a backbench rebellion in Parliament are growing following news that a decarbonisation target will not be included in the energy bill being put forward by the Coalition government.

Despite being seen as a crucial factor for climate change campaigners and supporters of low-carbon energy, any target on decarbonising electricity generation has been left out of the bill on the insistence of both the Chancellor George Osborne and the Prime Minister David Cameron. Tim Yeo, chairman of the energy and climate change select committee, is set to give a speech in the City this morning insisting that an amendment to the bill to include a decarbonisation target be brought forward when the bill reaches the reporting stages early next year.

The lack of a decarbonisation target is splitting Parliament

(Image source - The Guardian)

Yeo believes that a 2030 target to reduce carbon emissions from energy production is essential in encouraging investors to the UK and to give them certainty that the country’s long-term emissions-cutting targets are met. Yeo said that these issues were ‘a constant theme’ in his talks with investors, and believes that a specific decarbonisation target would ‘boost investor confidence’.

The Committee on Climate Change (CCC) has suggested that the target should be no more than 50g of carbon dioxide per kilowatt hour by 2030. Yeo said he would happily compromise with a target of 50 to 100g/kWh. The current figure is around 490g/kWh.

Another row over carbon targets is expected as Ed Davey, the secretary of state for energy and climate change, will announce the same day as Yeo whether the government will accept the advice of the CCC and include emissions from aviation and shipping in the UK's carbon targets. Many within the Conservative Party are opposed to this, but it would be damaging to the Liberal Democrats if Davey was to overrule the committee, the statutory body set up to advise ministers on how to meet long-term carbon targets, on this issue.