| Author (Person) | Carstens, Karen |
|---|---|
| Series Title | European Voice |
| Series Details | Vol.10, No.12, 1.4.04 |
| Publication Date | 01/04/2004 |
| Content Type | News |
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By Karen Carstens Date: 01/04/04 ENVIRONMENT Commissioner Margot Wallström has dismissed claims made by energy-intensive industries that the EU's greenhouse gas emission-trading scheme will spur huge electricity price rises. Earlier this month a group of firms led by paper industry association CEPI alleged that structural deficiencies in the power market meant that emission caps on electricity generators would lead to financial distortions. "We think the effect will not be as big or disastrous as the industry says," Wallström said on Monday (29 March). "Other things may affect the electricity price more than that." But industries including pulp and paper and iron and steel warn that EU power markets, despite liberalization, are still too fragmented and uncompetitive. Combined with the practice of 'marginal pricing' for electricity, this will mean automatically higher prices for power even when it is produced from carbon-free sources such as nuclear or renewables. The result will be a "windfall" for the generators, they say. "It's not that we've overlooked this or not calculated it," Wallström said. "We don't know what the size of this effect will be, but they are grossly exaggerating the effect on the market and prices." Meanwhile, yesterday (31 March) was the deadline for member states to submit their finalized national allocation plans (NAPs) for assigning emission allowances to the Commission. Although none had done so before this week, Wallström said a lot of behind-the-scenes progress had been made, indicating that she had been "much more worried a few weeks ago" than now. It would be up to the large member states such as France, the UK and Germany to "set the tone" of the emissions allocations, she said, and that "so far it looks OK". But green groups attacked a compromise that emerged in Berlin on Tuesday (30 March) after a tough night of talks between two warring ministers - Jürgen Trittin, environment, and Wolfgang Clement, economics - setting different emissions levels for two periods of trading, in 2005-07 and 2008-12. Stephan Singer, head of climate and energy policy at the World Wide Fund for Nature's (WWF) Brussels office, called the deal "a surrender before the coal lobby". "Germany has turned from a climate policy leader to one which openly supports new coal-fired power stations at the expense of clean energies," he charged. WWF also claimed that industry lobbying had "seriously weakened" the NAPs of Finland and France. Greece, Spain and Italy have yet to produce their own plans, with Rome looking likely to produce one "that will be bad for protection", it said, while draft plans from Austria, Ireland, Denmark and the Netherlands "show emissions rising rather than falling below current levels". Margot Wallström, European Commissioner for the Environment, has denied that the European Union's emission trading scheme will lead to an increase in electricity prices. |
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| Source Link | http://www.european-voice.com/ |
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| Subject Categories | Energy, Environment |
