Transcript Key NGO Priorities in Energy and Climate Change

EU leadership in climate
change policy ?
Rob Bradley,
Climate Action Network Europe
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
Rob Bradley, Climate Action Network Europe
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
Rob Bradley, Climate Action Network Europe
Climate policy in the EU
Perverse subsidies
Liberalisation increases energy demand
Security of supply => more coal
Export and trade policies
Climate Policy
Rob Bradley, Climate Action Network Europe
Competitiveness
worries
35
30
25
20
15
10
5
0
-5
-10
UNFCC target
Kyoto target
Current target
EU
Japan
United
States
Rob Bradley, Climate Action Network Europe
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
Rob Bradley, Climate Action Network Europe
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
Rob Bradley, Climate Action Network Europe
Domestic politics
• Coal industry restructuring
• Lobbying weight of the energy sector
• Concerns over fuel poverty
• Reluctance to tackle transport
Rob Bradley, Climate Action Network Europe
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!
Rob Bradley, Climate Action Network Europe
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
Rob Bradley, Climate Action Network Europe
Emission trading: the
debate
• How does this sit with pre-existing
climate policies?
• Mandatory or voluntary?
• Links with other mechanisms
• Sector and gas coverage
Rob Bradley, Climate Action Network Europe
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
Rob Bradley, Climate Action Network Europe
ECCP initiatives
• Energy efficiency in buildings
• Energy services/ DSM
• Biofuels
• Fluorinated gases
• Cogeneration
Rob Bradley, Climate Action Network Europe
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
Rob Bradley, Climate Action Network Europe
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
Rob Bradley, Climate Action Network Europe
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
Rob Bradley, Climate Action Network Europe
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
Rob Bradley, Climate Action Network Europe
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
Rob Bradley, Climate Action Network Europe
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
Rob Bradley, Climate Action Network Europe
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…
Rob Bradley, Climate Action Network Europe
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)
Rob Bradley, Climate Action Network Europe