FEATURE: War and trade – How Russia’s aggression has transformed the politics of CBAM
The EU’s grand plan to establish a carbon border tax on CO2-intensive goods, once at the core of the global trade debate, is set to enter choppy waters as the bloc strives to secure critical raw materials and energy supply amid a much-shakier geopolitical landscape and enhanced dependency on the US.
Read MoreEU’s von der Leyen backs boost to REPowerEU funding, raising questions about a further ETS raid
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen on Wednesday called for a boost to funding for the REPowerEU programme to exit Russian fossil fuels, arguing that the bloc otherwise risked fragmentation as member states roll out different levels of support to citizens and businesses.
Read MoreEU nations seek to raise 75% of €20 bln-worth REPowerEU from Innovation Fund, torpedo MSR sale idea
EU finance ministers on Tuesday endorsed a unified stance to partly finance the REPowerEU strategy by sourcing the greatest chunk of the €20 billion from the Innovation Fund and the remaining portion from frontloaded member state auctions, in turn finally discarding the idea of MSR-held sales.
Read MoreEU lawmakers back REPowerEU compromise in interim vote
Key European lawmakers in an interim vote late on Monday stuck to a compromise that would part-finance the REPowerEU strategy with €20 billion worth of carbon allowance sales solely sourced from frontloaded member state auctions over three years.
Read MoreEU energy ministers seal emergency package, energy-hungry states seek gas price range
The 27-nation EU rapidly sealed a “political agreement” on an emergency package aimed at mitigating spiralling energy prices on Friday, in what was only the first – and arguably least important – part of a meeting largely dominated by differences on how to intervene in the gas market.
Read MorePREVIEW: Energy ministers to rubberstamp emergency interventions, battle lingers on gas price cap
Energy ministers will meet on Friday to finally adopt long-floated measures aimed at taming rocketing energy prices, ranging from mandatory electricity curbs to taxing windfall profits, against the backdrop of a worsened geopolitical scenario since the EU-27 gathered only a couple of weeks prior.
Read MoreEU ministers head for fraught REPowerEU talks amid unresolved spat
Czechia is set to stick to its compromise plans in its efforts to broker a united stance among EU nations for bloc’s REPowerEU strategy, despite some member states objecting to raiding the ETS-derived Innovation Fund, an official told Carbon Pulse on Wednesday.
Read MoreEU lawmakers tee up battle over REPowerEU carbon sale sources
Forthcoming talks on how to finance part of the EU’s rapid exit from Russian fossil fuels promise to be heated, with lawmakers and member states at odds over which carbon allowances to raise €20 billion from, though both are critical of a Brussels plan to tap the supply-managing MSR.
Read MoreItaly’s decarbonisation path at risk as far-right alliance takes helm
Italy, the EU’s third-largest economy, is poised to be run by a hard-right coalition led by Giorgia Meloni after the leader of populist party Fratelli d’Italia (Brothers of Italy) came out as the absolute winner of the country’s snap elections, in a history-making victory set to put domestic gas supply and nuclear resurgence at the core of the national energy debate.
Read MoreENVI lawmakers seek to fund REPowerEU solely from frontloaded EUA auctions over three years -source
Key European lawmakers from four major parties have endorsed a provisional stance that would help finance the REPowerEU strategy with €20 billion worth of carbon allowance sales solely sourced from frontloaded member state auctions spread over three years, a parliamentary source told Carbon Pulse.
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