The debate on the (un)health of the EU Emissions Trading Scheme (EU ETS) looks set to continue at least until the end of 2013. Here is our latest update* on recent and coming developments.
On 19 February the Environment Committee of the European Parliament (ENVI) voted in favour of the rapporteur’s report on the back-loading Decision. The report supports the European Commission’s proposal, although adding slightly tighter conditionality of “an impact assessment showing that impact of such intervention on sectors exposed to a significant risk of carbon leakage is limited” and that “the Commission should be able to make no more than one such adaptation and only during the eight-year period beginning on 1 January 2013.” MEPs from the centre-left S&D group supported the report unanimously, along with three-quarters of the liberal ALDE group, while more than half of the centre-right EPP group voted against the report. The ENVI report will now be submitted for a vote of the Parliament plenary in the week starting 15 April. Meanwhile several additional Member States have adopted positions in favour of the back-loading, including France and the UK, and the Council has continued to discuss the Decision at working party level.\r
The forward timetable on back-loading is uncertain. For the moment it is not expected that the EU Environment Council will vote until after the inter-institutional trialogue which will follow the Parliament plenary. With a quick trialogue, the back-loading Decision could then potentially be finalised during the 18 June EU Environment Council and in another Parliament plenary in the weeks of 10 June or 1 July. Presuming that the Climate Change Committee would then vote on the back-loading Regulation in July/September, followed by 3 months of Parliament scrutiny, the earliest date at which the back-loading could be implemented is late 2013.
Meanwhile the debate on structural measures has gained momentum. On 20 February the European Commission College discussed preliminary ideas for the 2030 Climate and Energy Framework, and agreed that a legislative proposal on ETS might be proposed at the end of 2013 alongside the expected 2030 Communication. On 1 March, the European
Commission’s DG Climate Action held the first of two meetings with stakeholders to discuss the six structural options in detail. Secretary-General Hans ten Berge presented for EURELECTRIC, and the meeting was video-streamed at http://ec.europa.eu/clima/events/0070/index_en.htm,
EURELECTRIC’s preferred options of an early revision of the linear factor and for widening the ETS to additional
sectors will be discussed at the second stakeholder meeting, which will probably take place on 19 April. All responses
to the November 2012-February 2013 Carbon Market Report consultation on the structural measures will be
published online by DG Climate Action in the next days at
http://ec.europa.eu/clima/consultations/0017/index_en.htm.
However, as with the back-loading, the future process on structural measures is uncertain. Which measures are
prioritised by the Commission and whether these are supported by the Member States and the Parliament is unlikely
to be clear before September.