In another push to reach its goal of at least 40% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2030, the European Union is working on new reforms to its pioneering emissions trading scheme.

technology

EU politics

climate change

Energy

Environment

The EU reforms its carbon trading system

https://api.multimedia.europarl.europa.eu/documents/20125/20165564/N01-PUB-180201-ETS-EN.srt

The EU's emissions trading system is the cornerstone

of the European Union's climate change policy. ##@#

 Companies that pollute more heavily can buy allowances,

each corresponding to one tonne of CO2. ##@#

These allowances are capped at a level that decreases over time 

so that overall emissions are reduced. ##@#

 But the financial crisis of 2008 had an impact on the smooth running of ETS, 

resulting in the price of allowances going down.

The EU is working on reforms to better regulate the market. ##@# 

We ended up with far too many of these allowances, through nobody's fault,

and what we hadn't anticipated in the previous legislation 

was a way of dealing with that on a regular basis,

in other words reacting to market movements. ##@#

 The reforms also aim to stop funding coal-fired methods 

and to promote the use of low-carbon technologies. ##@#

Effectively what we have in this new ETS system 

is for the first time the acknowledgement that allowances can be cancelled.

And that's a really important breakthrough. ##@#

The goal is to decarbonise EU industry, while keeping the market competitive.