Mixed Greens: EU ETS ‘rescue’ reforms clear first hurdle

Reforms aimed at reviving the European Union’s flagging emissions trading scheme won approval from a key committee of the European parliament on Tuesday, putting them on track to be debated by the whole parliament in April. The reforms propose “backloading,” or altering the auctioning schedule for allowances to reduce the surplus and thus temporarily boost the carbon price. The allowances would then be inserted back into the system before the end of Phase 3 in 2020. The Environment Committee of the European Parliament voted to give the Commission the authority to do this “in exceptional” circumstances as a ‘one-off’ measure. The Commission also has to produce an impact assessment showing there would not be a significant risk of companies relocating as a result.

The US ETS needs rescuing because the prices of carbon permits have plummeted from average prices of over €30/t in previous years, to down around €5 – in January they fell to a 52-week low of €3.37/t, and they fell 20 per cent following Tuesday’s vote before recovering to €4.43. But, as HSBC climate analyst Zoe Knight has pointed out, there’s still some way to go before the reforms get the green light, with at least two further steps, within the parliament, that need to be taken. One is a vote on whether to negotiate with Member States on the finer details of backloading, which must take place before the proposal goes to the full plenary for approval in April. And work needs to be done at the Council level, where there is still no consensus in favour of the proposal, with Germany, still undecided. HSBC says it does not expect a final decision until June at the earliest.

Atlantis’ $5m tidal energy boost

Atlantis Resources, an Australian-founded and now London-based maker of ocean energy turbine, says it has won $5 million from the Canadian government to build and install a 1MW tidal energy project at the Fundy Ocean Research Centre for Energy test site in the Bay of Fundy. Atlantis says it will work with Lockheed Martin Corp. and Irving Shipbuilding to build, install and monitor the turbine in the bay, which has one of the highest tidal surges, measuring as much as 15m.

Atlantis CEO Tim Cornelius said the installation could provide safe, clean, renewable energy for Nova Scotia and “through that process develop the expertise, experience and infrastructure to be a resource for tidal energy projects across North America.” Deployment of the Atlantis turbine is planned for summer 2015. Atlantis has other developments in Scotland and India.

In other news…

A UN study has warned that people in developed nations should become “demitarians” – eating half as much meat as usual – to avoid severe environmental damage. The Guardian reports that the scientists behind the research said the EU horsemeat scandal had uncovered the dark side of unsustainable meat consumption, which has fuelled a trade in undocumented livestock and mislabelled cheap ready meals. “There is a food chain risk,” said Prof Mark Sutton, who coined the term demitarian and is lead author of a UN Environment Programme (Unep) study published on Monday. “Now is a good time to talk to people about this.”