-------- Original Message --------
Subject: [Green Mail] NEWS RELEASE: Euro-Parliament Environment
Committee Votes For Viable ETS As Industry Fails To Dictate Terms
Date: Tue, 7 Oct 2008 16:36:45 +0100
From: News from the Green Party <[log in to unmask]>
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NEWS RELEASE
>From the office of South-East England’s Green MEP Caroline Lucas
7 October 2008
ENVIRONMENT COMMITTEE VOTES FOR VIABLE ETS AS INDUSTRY FAILS TO DICTATE
TERMS
Following this morning's vote (1) on the emissions trading system (ETS) in
the European Parliament's environment committee, Green MEP Caroline Lucas
commented:
"I'm delighted that the Environment Committee saw off attempts by industry
to completely derail the ETS. It clearly rejected the last-minute package
of amendments drafted by the steel sector, and submitted by German
Conservative MEP Karl-Heinz Florenz, who has turned out to be a modern-day
Jekyll and Hyde - serving as the Rapporteur in the Parliament's Climate
Change Committee, but at the same time attempting to destroy the EU's
flagship climate policy.
"While we regret that today's vote did not increase the ambition of the
Commission's proposal, we are relieved that it preserved the crucial
principle of allocation by auctioning, whereby industry must pay for the
right to emit. Indefinitely handing out credits for free would have
undermined this centrepiece of EU climate legislation and continued granting
grotesque windfall profits to industry. 85% free allocation to the
manufacturing sector in 2013 will be entirely phased out in favour of full
auctioning of carbon credits by 2020.
"We are especially pleased that the Committee also succeeded in ringfencing
100% of the auction revenues - estimated to be worth a possible €50 billion
per year by 2020 - for climate-related purposes, including 50% to be
earmarked for climate protection in developing countries. Firm commitment
to supporting their efforts to adapt - and tackling root causes such as
deforestation - may make all the difference in securing an international
agreement on climate protection in Copenhagen next year.
"For our credibility in the international negotiations, it is particularly
welcome that the Environment Committee voted for an ETS that automatically
keeps pace if the EU commits to a higher reduction target in a future
international climate agreement.
"The Environment Committee today recognised the issue of carbon leakage, but
underlined that problems faced within certain industry sectors must be
addressed with a remedy for each specific ailment, once the international
agreement is concluded, rather than with an overdose of free carbon credits
for all.”
Dr Lucas concluded: "Finally, on the issue of carbon capture and storage
(CCS), we regret that the idea of "double crediting" was passed. This
technology has a part to play, but so do many other new and exciting
renewable technologies. We should not be articificially boosting CCS and
prioritising coal at the expense of these - especially bearing in mind that
CCS will not reach commercial stage until at least 2020, yet the science
tells us that emissions must peak and begin to decline by 2015.
“Neither should any public subsidy for CCS come from disrupting the supposed
market mechanism of the ETS: why not use auctioning revenues, as is proposed
for other renewable technologies - or even redeploy existing fossil fuel
subsidies? And if a key part of the motivation to accelerate CCS development
is for its use in China and elsewhere in developing countries, then we fail
to understand why MEPs rejected our Green suggestion to make the receipt of
any credits conditional on an intellectual property sharing agreement."
ENDS
Notes to Editors
(1) 42 in favour, 24 against
For more information on the work of Dr Lucas MEP, please contact Melissa
Freeman on 0207 407 9935 / 07950 382149 or [log in to unmask]
www.carolinelucasmep.org.uk
Melissa Freeman
Media Officer to Caroline Lucas MEP
Suite 58
The Hop Exchange
24 Southwark Street
London SE1 1TY
Office: 020 7407 9935
Mobile: 07950 382149
Email: [log in to unmask]
P Think of the environment, please don't print this email unless you really
need to.
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