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17 August 2007 EU emissions trading scheme an 'embarrassing failure', think tank saysIn "Europe's Dirty Secret: Why the EU Emissions Trading Scheme isn't working", UK-based Open Europe says that the current EU Emissions trading scheme isn't working and that international action should focus on setting tough, enforceable national targets for greenhouse gas reduction. The European Union Greenhouse Gas Emission Trading Scheme (EU ETS) was set up for operations in January 2005 as the "largest multi-country, multi-sector Greenhouse Gas emission trading scheme world-wide." In a statement, Open Europe says: "Almost everyone now acknowledges that the first phase of the system - running from 2005 to 2007 - has been a failure: more permits to pollute have been printed than there is pollution. "The price of carbon has collapsed to almost zero, creating no incentive to reduce pollution. As a result, UK firms covered by the scheme increased their emissions by 3.6% in the first year alone. Across the EU, emissions from installations covered by the ETS rose by just under 1%." In a foreword to the study, Swedish Green MP Max Andersson writes that: "There has so-far been limited questioning of the hazy assertion that the EU is good for the environment. This new study from Open Europe attempts to challenge this claim, arguing that real environmentalists should be very sceptical indeed of the EU's record on this area." Hugo Robinson, an analyst at Open Europe says that the EU ETS is costing a lot, but it isn't working. He thinks that member states have opted to buy in vast numbers of what are essentially carbon offsets from developing countries, rather than make real reductions in emissions. He says: "International action should focus on setting tough and enforceable national targets for greenhouse gas reduction. How to reach those binding targets should be up to individual countries." Dana Gornitzki Source: edie newsroom
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 Click here to leave a commentCommentsAn alternative solution?
By Alan Buxton "Finally, the ETS in phase one was not a real market." You identify the allocation of permits through lobbying power rather than through auctions as major causes of the failure of Phase 1. Might Phase 2 not be better served by addressing this issue and using the market to allocate permits? © Faversham House Group Ltd 2007. edie news articles may be copied or forwarded
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 You are notlogged in » Log in here Why not register for your free weekly newsletter? Related Stories The Environmental Audit Commission has published its third report on the EU Emissions Trading Scheme in which it blasts the mechanism for being too loose to be effective and calls for a 'significant' tightening of caps.» International investigation into £1bn carbon tax dodge A scam that uses carbon trading to avoid paying tax is being investigated in countries across Europe, including the UK.» EC 'exceeded its powers' by seeking to limit states' emissions The international courts have upheld a claim by Poland and other Central European countries that the EC over-stepped the mark when it set a ceiling for the carbon emissions of individual states.» 2008 carbon market valued at Euro 90bn The global carbon market grew substantially in 2008, despite the downturn in other global commodity markets - and the EU's trading scheme was responsible for most of this activity.
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