Foratom Welcomes Committee’s Adoption Of Opinion On ETS Revisions

19 Dec (NucNet): The Brussels-based nuclear industry group Foratom has welcomed the adoption on 15 December 2016 by the European Parliament’s environment committee of its opinion on EC proposals to revise the EU emissions trading system (ETS) directive. Foratom said the vote puts the EU on track, but more must be done if confidence is to be restored in the ETS. The ETS can help decarbonise the European economy at an affordable cost and is a cornerstone of the EU’s policy to combat climate change. However, the price of carbon needs to be much higher than it is if investments in low-carbon electricity production are to be incentivised, Foratom said. Foratom believes ETS reforms should be more ambitious than the EC proposals. Additional measures are needed to make the ETS more “predictable, robust and effective”. For example, Foratom said it supports aligning the ETS with the December 2015 Paris Agreement on climate change and reaching a higher “linear reduction factor” (LRF) than the one proposed by the EC in July 2015. The LRF – essentially a decrease rate in the total quantity of allowances – should be increased to 2.4% from 2021. It is currently set at 1.74%. Foratom said it welcomed other measures such as the “backloading” of surplus emissions allowances that have built up in the ETS since 2009. The surplus of allowances is due largely to economic uncertainty – which reduced emissions more than anticipated – and high imports of international credits. This has led to lower carbon prices and a weaker incentive to reduce emissions. The plenary vote on revising the ETS directive is scheduled for February 2017. The ETS is the world's biggest scheme for trading greenhouse gas emissions allowances. It covers some 11,000 power stations and industrial plants in 30 countries.