Wednesday 21 December 2016

EU Environment Ministers call for more ambitious ETS

EU Environment Ministers are calling for a more ambitious Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS).

In a discussion about the reform of the programme at the Environment Council earlier this week, they expressed their support for setting up more measures to scale up emission cuts.

Ministers from countries including Belgium, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Sweden and the UK intervened on the need to increase the price signal and bring the ETS in line with the Paris Agreement.

It follows last week's European Parliament’s Environment Committee vote to increase annual emission cuts from 2.2% to 2.4% per year.

Commenting on the debate, Wendel Trio, Director of Climate Action Network (CAN) Europe said: "A large number of EU countries support strengthening the ETS beyond what the European Commission has proposed. This comes right after a clear majority in the European Parliament voted for measures to raise the carbon price. We welcome progress, but the proposed measures are purely cosmetic. With carbon prices recently slipping below four euros, governments urgently need to overhaul the broken system, instead of just putting lipstick on a Zombie."