Brussels, 15/04/2013 (Agence Europe) - On the eve of the European Parliament's vote on the proposed short-term reform of the EU's emissions quotas trading system (ETS), three environmental NGOs have urged the European Parliament to approve the reform, which aims to halt the over-allocation of quotas temporarily as a prerequisite to save the carbon market, but also the climate policy of the EU (see EUROPE 10820 and 10813).
Postponing the auctioning of 900 million CO2 quotas (“backloading”) until the start of the third trading period, as proposed by the European Commission by means of an amendment to Directive 2003/87, in the hope of increasing the price per tonne of carbon, is a vital first step towards correcting the major imbalances between supply and demand on the carbon market, in the opinion of the WWF, CAN Europe and Greenpeace. However, the temporary freeze should apply to a greater number of quotas, the three NGOs stress in a joint press release issued on Monday 15 April.
“The ETS is dangling on a cliff edge and Parliament can choose to lend a helping hand or to give it a shove. Support for backloading is a necessary step toward creating the carbon market that will help modernise and decarbonise Europe's industry”, said Sam van den Plas of the WWF, summing up what is at stake.
Julia Michalak, climate expert for CAN Europe, hammered the point home: “This week's (…) vote is a test for the European Parliament. MEPs will show whether they will vote for the climate or for more cheap pollution”, she said.
In the view of Joris den Blanken, of Greenpeace's EU office, rejecting this reform would be tantamount to undoing the EU's entire climate policy. “Either parliamentarians support credible European action against climate change, or Europe will be forced back to a patchwork of national measures. It is not only the carbon market, but the entire European climate policy that is at stake in tomorrow's vote”, he said.
And in order to make the European Parliament aware of its responsibilities, the NGOs stress the facts that the European Commission presented its proposal in response to calls by the European Parliament in favour of shoring up the ETS, and that the text was approved by the Parliament's committee on the environment on 19 January of this year. (AN/transl.fl)