Brussels, 13/11/2012 (Agence Europe) - The European Commission is planning on backloading 900 million tonnes of CO2 emissions quotas from the EU's Emissions Trading Scheme for the 2013-2015 period. The European Commissioner for climate action, Connie Hedegaard, put forward the proposal at the climate change parliamentary committee on Monday 12 November. This approach aims to influence the carbon market, which has been slowed down by surplus credits. Prices are subsequently expected to increase, which will help promote more investment in renewable energies.
The Commissioner opted for a more cautious approach by advocating a 900 million backload, as opposed to the Parliament's tougher approach advocating a backload of 1.4 billion tonnes. MEPs' initial reactions were therefore rather mixed and some of them expressed fear that the approach advocated would not be enough to increase per tonne prices of carbon. Matthias Groote (S&D, Germany), the rapporteur on the subject, asserted that “backloading the release of allowances will only buy time. We need to take account of all the concerns and doubts that have been raised”.
On Wednesday 14 November, the Commission is subsequently expected to present a report on the carbon market, accompanied by a series of structural measures in response to the lack of balance between supply and demand on the CO2 emissions market. (MD/transl.fl)