EU%20leadership%20in%20climate%20change%20policy%20?

1
EU leadership in climate change policy ?

• Rob Bradley,
• Climate Action Network Europe

2
Who is Climate Action Network Europe?

• We focus on climate change
• 85 European member organisations
• More than 300 members of the Climate Action
  Network (CAN)
• Global perspective
• CAN a major player in the Kyoto process

3
What is climate leadership?

• International dimension ratification, coalition
  building, engagement with developing countries
• Meet own target with strong and credible policies
  and measures
• Show that technology forcing and creative PAMs
  achieve real emission cuts without economic
  disaster

4
Climate policy in the EU
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Competitiveness worries
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Energy market liberalisation

• Slow and halting progress towards total market
  opening
• Market still badly distorted by subsidies and
  strong incumbents
• Lower prices and supply-focused reform make
  demand management very difficult

7
Security of supply

• Issue raised to provide cover for coal and
  nuclear subsidies
• Main threat in oil, but most action proposed in
  electricity
• 15 rule explicitly allows market protection for
  favoured technologies

8
Domestic politics

• Coal industry restructuring
• Lobbying weight of the energy sector
• Concerns over fuel poverty
• Reluctance to tackle transport

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So how are we doing?

• Nice coherent package on paper
• ECCP, ET, Kyoto mechanisms, member state actions
  balanced
• EU world champion at saying the right thing!

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Emission trading the proposal

• Absolute cap to cover large point emitters
• Target setting and allocation to be done by
  member states
• Unrestricted trading within this cap
• Compliance penalty 100/tonne (or 2x permit
  price) plus restitution

11
Emission trading the debate

• How does this sit with pre-existing climate
  policies?
• Mandatory or voluntary?
• Links with other mechanisms
• Sector and gas coverage

12
Emission trading the prospects

• Germany opposed, UK going solo, many uninterested
• Majority voting makes blocking hard
• Growing enthusiasm among (non-German) industry
• NGOs gradually warming to the idea

13
ECCP initiatives

• Energy efficiency in buildings
• Energy services/ DSM
• Biofuels
• Fluorinated gases
• Cogeneration

14
Energy efficiency in buildings

• Non-prescriptive approach based on auditing
  requirements and some reporting
• Was supposed to save 45 million tonnes CO2
• Timelines postponed too late to help with Kyoto

15
Energy services/ DSM

• Energy services are the magic bullet of climate
  and liberalisation
• DSM aspects of liberalisation legislation mostly
  rejected
• Everyone seems unsure what this directive should
  even contain

16
Biofuels

• Proposed Directive makes no attempt to ensure
  environmental advantages from biofuels
• Commission estimates 100-150 Euro per tonne CO2
  abatement cost
• Environmental measure has become another
  agribusiness subsidy plan

17
Fluorinated gases

• Commission proposing to amend reg. 20/37 on O3
  depleting substances
• Risks concentrating on containment (the
  consensus)
• Needs to move much further in encouraging
  adoption of alternatives

18
Cogeneration Directive

• Need for Directive as CHP often treated poorly in
  market liberalisation
• Targets abandoned
• Talk bogged down on definitions
• Commission went slowly, now with Parliament

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Fiscal measures

• Many countries have electricity and/or carbon
  taxes
• Proposal for harmonisation since 1992 going
  nowhere slowly
• Concerns include fuel poverty (UK), inflation
  (Spain) and competitiveness (everybody)
• Tackling subsidies is even harder, but possibly
  more important

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And against that

• Continuing subsidies to coal, nuclear and even to
  natural gas
• Structural funds skewed in favour of road
  transport
• Export credits, IFIs, bilateral aid

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The need for coherence

• ECCP was a package for a reason
• Perverse effects from unbalanced policy
  implementation e.g. emission trading and trains
• Many parts of government still have to realise
  that climate policy exists
• EU policy famously multidirectional this will
  not be temporary! (fishing, tobacco)