The high-energy consuming industries are not sparing any efforts to reduce their influence on current legislation in their favour as part of the current reforms of the Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) for the 2021-2030 period. They may also be able to benefit from more than €230 billion in subsidies under this reform, according to a report from the Corporate Europe Observatory (CEO) published on Wednesday 7 December.
This “Carbon Welfare” report was published on this issue during the week of the vote at the European Parliament Environment Committee on the report by Ian Duncan (ECR, United Kingdom) (see EUROPE 11683).
It demonstrates that lobbying by Shell, ArcelorMittal, Eurofer and the European Steel Association has led to a volume in free allocations worth more than €5 billion over the 2021-2030 period. The report also highlights that at the same time, the companies that successfully pushed for these free emission handouts are also demanding rebate son their electricity bills that are equivalent to €58 billion.
Other industry loopholes result from the lobbying exerted by the representatives of national industrial interests among MEPs. According to the report, aluminium producers, for example, managed to get the Italian government to propose a compensation system to the Council of the EU for its electricity industry, while several MEPs proposed amendments in this sense, to Parliament.
The CEO also shows how the Scottish rapporteur, Ian Duncan, obtained an exemption of €1.7 billion for offshore oil producers and that he promised to protect the Scottish oil and gas industries “from the ‘threat’ of EU environmental measures”.
The figures put forward in the report on the value of the free allowances and subsidies are €25 per EU Allowance Unit (EUA) of one tonne of CO2, consistent with the Commission’s Impact Assessment accompanying the draft ETS reform in July 2015. The CEO report can be consulted at: https://corporateeurope.org/sites/default/files/attchments/the_carbon_welfare_report.pdf. (Original version in French by Aminata Niang)