EU Commission ETS rescue plan to reduce allowance surplus
2012-07-25 12:18 by Anja Reitz
To tackle the overhang of carbon allowances,
the Commission, the EU's executive arm, said it proposed altering the
auction timetable to delay the release of new allowances. It is also seeking clarification of an article governing the timetabling of auctions within the European Union's ETS law. While there are no firm numbers in that draft
proposal itself, a Commission analysis assesses the possibility of
withdrawing 400 million, 900 million or 1.2 billion allowances. Environmental groups have made the case for around 2 billion or more. "The
EU ETS has a growing surplus of allowances built up over the last few
years," Climate Commissioner Connie Hedegaard said. "It is not wise to
deliberately continue to flood a market that is already oversupplied." The
Commission will present a report later this year on the ETS, to start a
debate on deeper structural reforms to follow the short-term fix. Member states will need to approve the Commission's proposals before they can take effect. Source: REUTERS, BRUSSELS |
(Reporting by Barbara Lewis; editing by Rex Merrifield)