Page 23 - Lawtext Environmental Law & Management Journal Sample

344
4
1 1 1 1 13 33 34 4 (2008) 20 ELM : PROPOSED MODIFICATIONS TO THE EMISSIONS TRADING DIRECTIVE : POCKLINGTON
to the conclusion of a comprehensive international proposal is that energy intensive-industries have achieved
climate change agreement quite substantial reductions in their CO emissions against
2
• a mandatory EU target of 20 per cent renewable the Kyoto 1990 baseline. By contrast, the non-traded
energy by 2020 including a 10 per cent biofuels sectors that will now come within the Commission’s
target. package of measures – buildings, transport, agriculture
and waste – have been given relatively modest reduction
The Communication was endorsed by both the European targets, and emissions from transport in particular have
Parliament and EU leaders at the March 2007 European increased since 1990.
Council, which invited the Commission to develop The proposed revision will include additional industrial
12
concrete proposals and a means of sharing the effort sectors – notably aluminium, petrochemicals and aviation
involved in achieving these targets between Member States. – and the scheme will extend to all greenhouse gases. 13
In response, the Commission issued a further These revisions target CO emissions from petrochemicals,
2
8
Communication on 23 January 2008 setting a number ammonia and aluminium production, nitrous oxide (N O)
2
of linked policy proposals, including: emissions from the production of nitric, adipic and
glyoxalic acid, and perflourocarbon (PFC) emissions from
• • • • • amendment of Directive 2003/87/EC 9 the aluminium sector, ‘all of which can be measured and
• sharing the efforts to meet the Community’s verified with sufficient accuracy’. Annex I of the proposal
independent greenhouse gas reduction commitment is specific in linking these additional gases with the
in sectors not covered by the EU ETS in the ‘non- emissions from a particular industry or process. Only in
traded sector’, including transport, buildings, services, the case of carbon capture and storage is there a general
smaller industrial installations, agriculture and waste inclusion of all greenhouse gases, despite the technique’s
• a directive promoting renewable energy. sole applicability to carbon dioxide.
Shipping, the global emissions of which have been
This formed part of the Commission’s Climate Action and estimated at double the level of those from aviation, 14
Renewable Energy Package which contained other remains excluded on the basis of current uncertainties in
proposals, including a legal framework on the storage of verifying and monitoring, although the Commission
10
carbon dioxide in geological strata, a communication on suggests that, with road transport, it may be included at
the demonstration of carbon capture and storage, and a later stage following a detailed impact assessment.
new guidelines for environmental state aid. However, since the combustion of biomass is considered
to be carbon-neutral, it is unlikely that emissions from
Proposed modifications to the Emissions agriculture or forestry will be included in future.
Trading Directive The combination of an increase in the number of
sectors covered and an extension to the six greenhouse
15
Although the Commission’s proposed directive (the gases of the Kyoto Protocol will result in an increase in
proposal) to amend the Emissions Trading Directive the overall coverage of the scheme by 140 to 150 MtCO ,
2
contains 40 recitals within the preamble, it comprises only (equivalent to 6.6–7.1 per cent of Phase II allowances,
11
five articles, with Article 1 detailing all the proposed with 100 MtCO resulting from the additional sectors and
2
changes. For clarity, therefore, the following discussion gases, and the remainder through ‘a codified interpretation
16
will refer to the number of the article(s) in the directive of combustion installations’ ).
that the Commission proposes should be changed. This codification is to be achieved through a
modification to Article 3:
Revised scope of the directive
[(t)] ‘Combustion installation’ means any stationary
The current version of the EU ETS became effective in technical unit in which fuels are oxidised producing
2005. It covers 10,000 industrial installations across the heat or mechanical energy or both, and other directly
EU, including power plants, oil refineries, cement and steel associated activities including waste gas scrubbing are
works, which together account for almost half the EU’s carried out
CO emissions. What is not acknowledged in the current
2

8 ‘Communication from the Commission to the European Parliament, 12 Proposal for a Directive amending Directive 2003/87/EC (n 2) arts
the Council, the European Economic and Social Committee and the 3(t) and (u), Annex I.
Committee for the Regions – 20 20 by 2020 Europe’s Climate Change 13 ibid art 3(c) and Annex II.
Opportunity’ COM(2008) 30 final (23 January 2008). 14 The Guardian ‘True Scale of CO2 Emissions from Shipping Revealed’
9 Proposal for a Directive amending Directive 2003/87/EC (n 2). (13 February 2008). A leaked UN Report indicated that the world’s
10 Proposal for a Directive of the European Parliament and of the Council merchant fleet is currently responsible for 1.12bn tonnes of CO2,
on the Geological Storage of Carbon Dioxide and Amending Council (~4.5 per cent of global emissions), while aviation accounts for 650M
Directives 85/337/EEC, 96/61/EC, Directives 2000/60/EC, 2001/ tonnes.
80/EC, 2004/35/EC, 2006/12/EC and Regulation (EC) No 1013/ 15 Carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), nitrous oxide (N2O),
2006. hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), perfluorocarbons (PFCs) and sulphur
11 Article 1, Amendments to Directive 2003/87/EC; art 2, Transposition; hexafluoride (SF6).
art 3, Transitional Provision; art 4, Entry into force and art 5, 16 Proposal for a Directive amending Directive 2003/87/EC (n 2) art
Addressees. 3(t).

ENVIRONMENTAL LAW & MANAGEMENT PUBLISHED BY LAWTEXT PUBLISHING LIMITED
www.lawtext.com