The EU emissions trading system
Auteur: Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Energy and Climate Change Committee
Nombre de pages: 159 pages
ISBN: 0215040724, 9780215040725
Edition: The Stationery Office
Date de publication: The Stationery Office
Description: The Government's decision to set a unilateral Carbon Price Floor could have a "devastating effect" on UK industry and will artificially raise electricity prices for consumers, while having no overall impact on emissions. Unless the price of carbon is increased at an EU-wide level, taking action on our own will have no overall effect on emissions other than to out-source them. Energy generators and heavy industry could be subject to an 'exorbitant' top-up tax of up to £25 per tonne of CO2 under current plans, because the price of carbon in the rest of the EU is so low. Electricity prices will increase as the price floor keeps the cost of carbon higher than in other countries, effectively subsidising other Member States at the expense of the UK consumer and resulting in "carbon leakage". DECC expects there to be as much as 10 GW of interconnection with other countries by 2020, some 10% of installed capacity. This makes electricity generation more susceptible to leakage than other sectors, such as goods manufacture, which may be restricted by the difficulties of relocating production. The report recommends that the: overall EU ETS cap should be toughened to deliver a 30% emissions reduction target by 2020; the annual reduction rate for the EU ETS cap must also be adjusted to set out a long-term emissions trajectory that will deliver a 60-80% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2050; the EU should set aside a significant number of EU Allowances and Members States should support this move as a necessary short-term fix