Brussels, 25/02/2014 (Agence Europe) - On Monday 24 February, a new step was taken towards the implementation of the short-term reform of the European carbon market, which is urgently required in order to remedy the imbalances between supply and demand due to the over-allocation of quotas. The Council of the EU has decided not to oppose the adoption of the regulation of the European Commission, which will allow it to temporarily withdraw 900 million surplus quotas at the start of the third trading period of the emissions quota trading system of the EU (ETS) by putting back the timetable initially scheduled for the auctions (“backloading”). The aim of this move is to try to push up the price of carbon and allow the ETS to play its role as an incentive for investment in green technologies and renewable energies.
The Council's move was a simple formality, in the framework of the comitology procedure with examination. As the Council made no objection and the Parliament decided on 6 February not to oppose the text, the European Commission can now adopt it.
The Commission's draft regulation aims to amend Regulation 1031/2010 on the timetable, management and other aspects of the auctioning of greenhouse gas emissions quotas in order to determine the volume of quotas which can be put up for auction over the period 2013-2020.
Readers may recall that 900 million quotas will be withdrawn from the market between 2014 and 2016 and reintroduced to it in 2019 and 2020, in line with the decision adopted by the Council and the Parliament on 16 December of last year. In spring 2014, the European Commission will withdraw 400 million quotas. (AN/transl.fl)