The European Commission is still aiming to publish its post-2020 ETS reform proposal before August, Europe’s climate and energy commissioner Miguel Arias Canete said Monday after industry groups urged him to avoid further delay.
“We are working very hard to present the ETS proposal before the summer break,” he told journalists after an Environment Council meeting in Luxembourg.
During a webstreamed part of that meeting, he told the EU environment ministers “we expect to have the proposal by mid-July”.
In the same meeting, Padomes Priekšsēdētājs of the outgoing Latvian presidency said the Council was expected to formally sign-off on the MSR in mid-September, a procedural issue needed for the measure to be made law that analysts had expected to occur by mid-July.
LOBBIES URGE HASTE
Earlier today, a trio of corporate lobby groups published a letter urging the EU’s climate chief to do “everything in his power” to introduce the post-202o ETS proposals before the summer.
“We respectfully ask you to build on the momentum generated by the G7 leaders by bringing out the proposals on the next phase of the Emissions Trading Scheme before the summer break,” wrote the Prince of Wales Corporate Leaders Group, EURELECTRIC and IETA.
G7 leaders agreed last week that global emissions should be cut by 40-70% below 2010 levels by 2050, effectively giving formal support to the range recommended last year by UN-backed scientists to limit global warming to 2C.
The G7 also called for eliminating emissions from burning fossil fuels.
“Once the appropriate policy environment has been put in place, business will be able to play its role as the engine of innovation, investment and cross-sectoral partnerships needed to build the path to a decarbonised economy,” the trio of interest groups said in the open letter.
European Commission documents leaked earlier this month showed a panel of officials had requested revisions to an impact assessment of the proposal.
The review will govern post-2020 rules such as deepening the annual ETS cap reduction to 2.2% from the current 1.74% rate, as well as determining rules for allocating free allowances to industries deemed vulnerable to carbon leakage.
It is also due to contain proposals on whether to use unallocated allowances destined to enter the MSR in 2020 for additional carbon leakage measures.
The ETS review proposal will then need to be debated and agreed by EU lawmakers, in a process that could take at least two years.
By Mike Szabo and Ben Garside – mike@carbon-pulse.com
