Brussels, 02/07/2013 (Agence Europe) - It's make or break time for the European Union Emissions Trading System (EU ETS) on Wednesday and, according to NGOs, for the climate also. On the eve of the vote by the European Parliament, due to take place in Strasbourg on Wednesday on short-term reform of the EU ETS, the environmental NGOs and civil society are calling on MEPs to make sure their votes count towards saving the climate. Some are pressing the plenary session to approve the compromise reached on 19 June by the parliamentary committee on the environment on the temporary freeze of 900 million surplus quotas at the beginning of the third ETS trading period, in the hope of bringing the price of carbon per tonne up, after it fell too low to allow the ETS to play its proper role (see EUROPE 10870). Others, who are more radical, see this “backloading” proposal as having the same effect as a plaster on a wooden leg, and call for the plenary to reject ETS to the benefit of measures that would be more effective than this market instrument for countering global warming.
Inescapable reform. Can Europe and WWF promptly and of one accord called on MEPs to “press the right button” by approving the “backloading” proposal that they fully support, although they do deplore the fact that the compromise forwarded to the plenary without amendments had, they say, unfortunately diluted the proposal. In their view, reform is inevitable for repairing the ETS which does not work as it should as, in its present state, it does not contribute to or reach the EU objective of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 80-95%, or speed up the transition needed towards a low-carbon economy. However, the two NGOs say, “backloading” must be immediately followed up by structural reform of ETS which would begin with the cancellation of temporarily frozen quotas.
Julia Michalak of Can Europe said MEPs have once again shown that they are voting for climate rather than for more short-term pollution. However, given that President Obama has just publicly announced a plan to combat climate change, she asked whether the EU could possibly allow itself to be overtaken by the United States in the race towards a green future.
Sam Van den Plas, an expert in EU climate policy within WWF, added that the ETS is collapsing under the weight of surplus tonnes of CO2, and the Parliament must lighten that load long enough for the system to get back on its feet again.
Stop fossil fuels. Forty-four more radical civil society associations from throughout the world consider it is high time to “stop fixating on a 'right' carbon price” as a way of reducing greenhouse gas emissions. They also call on the Parliament to scrap the ETS and to focus its attention, as a matter of urgency, on effective and fair climate policies - including the elimination of fossil fuels - as, they say, the ETS “is entrenching fossil fuel use in the EU”. In a joint statement published on 1 July, the 44 signatories from throughout the world set out a few of the priority measures that, in their view, are the most urgently required on the part of the EU.
These priorities include a European ban on fracking projects for shale gas extraction, phasing out public subsidies for fossil fuel exploration and use, structural changes in consumption and production, and support for small-scale, locally-owned and governed sustainable energy initiatives, as well as a halt to the negotiation of free-trade agreements and bilateral investment treaties that allow the EU to import goods from unsustainable energy sources and evade environmental regulations. (AN/transl.jl)