The European Union on Friday proposed a plan to weaken its flagship policy for reducing greenhouse gas emissions by adjusting rules so they would permit some industries to pollute at slightly higher levels, further into the future.
The planned changes to the continent’s Emissions Trading System, or ETS, come after intense debate among European countries about whether the existing rules — which drive investment in clean technology — were also hurting competitiveness.
Though Europe often holds itself up as a climate leader, it has been facing political infighting over some of its green policies. This has been particularly true as emissions cuts require increasingly significant changes in livelihoods and industry, and as Europe has struggled to jump-start its economy. Europe is the world’s fastest warming continent, and has been hit in recent months by intense heat waves and wildfires.
The proposal from the European Commission, the European Union’s executive arm, must still be debated and approved by countries.
The European Union, in announcing the proposal, lauded the ETS, and said the program, launched two decades ago, had helped drive emissions reductions of 50 percent in the sectors that it applies to, including power generation. But the statement said the proposed adjustments would “bring relief to industry” while preserving the continent’s climate goals.
“It looks like a gift for companies to delay their emission reductions while in reality this puts them at a competitive disadvantage with Chinese companies that accelerate,” said Linda Kalcher, the executive director of Strategic Perspectives, a Brussels-based climate policy group. “One more time, political pressure trumps economic and market realities.”
The ETS sets a threshold for the total amount of planet-warming greenhouse gas emissions that can be produced by those covered by the system. The cap shrinks every year, which in turn sets a pace for emissions cuts. Companies must monitor and report their emissions, and can also trade allowances.
Before the proposed revision, the cap had been shrinking annually at 4.3 percent, and was set to shrink by 4.4 percent starting in 2028. Under the new proposal, though, the annual reduction would be 3.7 percent from 2031 to 2035, and then 1.7 percent from 2036 until 2040.
Carbon Market Watch, an independent group that tracks carbon pricing and European climate policy, said that without any changes, the cap for emissions in sectors covered by the ETS would have hit zero by 2039. If the proposal takes hold, emissions would be permitted until 2048. The group said Friday’s proposal “risks undermining” existing climate targets for the next decades.
