Europe’s carbon market faced a critical hurdle this week as the European Union battled to prop up the currently saturated carbon trading scheme. A vote on the 16th of April looking to backstop the planned removal of carbon credits was seen to be critical.
The European Commission was looking to temporarily remove some of the carbon allowances to provide a swift resolution to the problem and hopefully bring the carbon price up from its recent record lows of €3.00 per tonne. Political wrangling meant that the biggest party bloc - the European People’s Party was against the move but over half of the member countries backed the move. However, bigger hitters such as Poland and Germany were yet to commit to the plan as they feared a higher ETS would drive up business costs.
And so the outcome of the vote was to reject the move (just), causing many to believe that this major plank of the European Union’s assault on climate change is now dead in the water. The outcome caused the carbon price to plummet yet again as traders were left reeling by the verdict. Those in favour of the scheme believe it can still be saved however but it will take a massive effort and some major political wrangling.
Whatever happens, the carbon price graph (above) makes for horrid reading and indicates that this key weapon in the drive towards a lower carbon future is being blunted from various directions and leaves many, including me, wondering just what can be done to force/encourage big business to really focus on climate change.
