Interview: how to charge firms for CO2 emissions without it costing jobs (EP)

Charging companies for CO2 emissions can be a great way of encouraging them to become cleaner, but also risks pushing them to move production to somewhere with lower environmental standards. The European Commission aims to prevent the practice known as carbon leakage by continuing to give some allowances away for free. Bas Eickhout proposed to block this decision, saying many industries can afford to pay for the allowances. The environment committee voted against his proposal on 24 September.

Some industrial sectors in the EU are given a substantial share of their CO2 emissions allowances for free, as it is feared they would otherwise relocate if they had to pay for them. The Commission has now prepared a list of sectors at risk of relocating on the assumption of a €30 price per allowance.
However, the market price today  is only €5 and some say that many of the sectors listed could actually afford paying the current market price or even more for allowances without putting jobs at risk in the EU.

We discussed the situation with Mr Eickhout.

What is wrong with the Commission proposal?

Sectors that are not at all exposed to the risk of carbon leakage are now receiving free allowances.

The Commission’s methodology to identify sectors eligible for the allocation of free allowances is based on a carbon price of €30 per allowance. This price is far too high and puts sectors on the list that do not belong there.

Meanwhile in an impact assessment that was not made public, the Commission uses a price of 16.5. Under this scenario, more sectors will have to buy allowances, member states will earn about €5 billion and several CO2-intensive sectors will have an incentive to innovate.

Is there a risk that some energy-intensive sectors, if removed from this list, might relocate their businesses to other regions?

No. A recent study, which was carried out for the Commission, even questions whether carbon leakage exists at all.

Moreover, the aforementioned impact assessment also concludes that some sectors can be safely removed from the list. The list should only contain the sectors that face unfair competition, whereas it currently the list contains 96% of all industries participating in ETS (Emissions Trading System).

How could the EU make companies pay for CO2 emissions while still preserving the jobs in the Union?

First of all, the revenues can be used to lower labour taxes, which will make it attractive for companies to hire more people. Secondly, companies will have to innovate to reduce their emissions, which in turn will create green jobs.
http://www.europarl.europa.eu/news/en/news-room/content/20140923STO68302/
24/9/14

50 Dirtiest U.S. Power Plants Huge Contributor to Carbon Emissions

U.S. power plants are an outsized contributor to the world’s carbon pollution, a new report released by Environment America Research & Policy Center and the Frontier Group says. It found that in 2012, they added more climate change-causing carbon to the environment than the entire economies of any nation other than China. 

The report, “America’s Dirtiest Power Plants: Polluter on a Global Scale,” demonstrated that U.S. power plants produced more than six percent of worldwide global warming emissions.

The report found that a relatively small number of primarily older, coal-fired plants were the main culprits. The 50 dirtiest power plants, less than one percent of all U.S. power plants, produced a whopping 30 percent of power-sector emissions in 2012, 12 percent of all U.S. carbon emissions, and nearly two percent of all the world’s carbon emissions. The U.S. has about 6,400 electricity-generating facilities. Yet a single one—the Scherer Power Plant in Georgia—produced .4 percent of U.S. carbon emissions, equivalent to the entire economy of Sri Lanka, which ranks 86th in the world.

“U.S. power plants are polluters on a global scale,” said Elizabeth Ouzts of Environment America Research & Policy Center. “That’s why clean power now must be part of the solution to the climate crisis.”

The report emphasized how much pollution the dirty plants produce relative to their energy production. Coal-fired plants produced 74 percent of U.S. power-plant pollution in 2012 but only 37 percent of its electricity. The 50 dirtiest plants contributed only 15 percent of the nation’s electricity.

“U.S. power plants make such an outsized contribution to global warming emissions because so many of them are old and inefficient, and because so many of them run on coal, one of the dirtiest fuels on the planet,” said the report, which said that 98 of the country’s 100 most carbon-polluting plants ran on coal.

The report recommended that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) “strengthen, finalize and implement the Clean Power Plan,” and that states begin to implement the plan to meet the standards as quickly as possible, working to quickly phase out the older, polluting plants and move to renewable energy sources. Its series of recommendations also includes urging Congress to pass a national renewable energy standard.

The Environment America Research & Policy Center is among many groups pushing for the Clean Power Plan. Six million comments have been submitted to the EPA and more than a thousand people have testified in hearing held across the country this summer in favor of the plan.

“For too long, power plants and other major polluters have enjoyed a holiday from responsibility,” said Rhode Island Senator Sheldon Whitehouse. “Rhode Island and some parts of the country have taken steps to cut carbon pollution and invest in clean energy, but this report shows why federal carbon pollution standards are necessary to protect public health, our communities and future generations from the dangerous threat of climate change.”
Anastasia Pantsios
http://ecowatch.com
18/9/14

China absorbs close to 70% of global e-waste. More waste means more business potential.

Video CCTV

By CCTV Correspondent Teressa Siu
China has long been dubbed the graveyard for electronic waste. The United Nations Environmental Program estimates that China absorbs about 70 percent of the world’s unwanted devices but China is creating more e-waste of it’s own.
China’s very own e-waste is already astronomical and growing. This collector says more waste means more business potential.
"We are calling for the producers to be responsible. First not to use toxic waste, then to make ways to collect and dismantle the products at the end of their life." Ma Tianjie, Greenpeace said.

China’s love for electronics is infectious with sales growing exponentially between 1995 to 2011. Mobile phones topped sales at a quarter billion with air conditioners in second place.
"China’s silicon valley is growing fast and China’s people are becoming more IT savvy and image-conscious. Their desires for new gadgets could mean more potentials for e waste." Teressa Siu said.
Green experts warn of double trouble. Imported foreign e-waste is still rampant. Even discarded electronics by prominent US institutions could end up in China.
Mega million tons reportedly originate from Canada, US, Europe and Japan, and land in two of China’s largest dismantling centers: Taizhou, Zhejiang Province and Guiyu of Guangdong Province.
E-waste is often disguised as second-hand goods which can be then legally exported. Multiple and untraceable channels of illegal transportation make it difficult to calculate the exact volume of foreign e-waste to China. But ’informal’ trading is no doubt prevalent. Even if it means hours of leg work for this peddler who makes one yuan off this electric fan.
http://english.cntv.cn/program/china24/20130826/101891.shtml
26/8/13
---
-
Related:

• «Όχι» των αφρικανών ηγετών στα ηλεκτρονικά σκουπίδια της Ευρώπης

• Η Αφρική… ηλεκτρονική χωματερή της Ευρώπης

• Africa will not be Europe's digital dumping ground, say leaders...

Rare earth metals: will demand be in line with supply?

Russian state-owned Rostekh and ICT Group plan to invest at least one billion dollars in a joint holding that would extract and refine rare-earth metals at the Tomtor deposit in the Russian republic of Yakutia, Russian media reported on Friday.

The construction of a hydro-metallurgical plant that would process rare earth metals is due to be completed by 2018.

Rare earth metals, or rare earth elements, are a set of seventeen chemical elements in the periodic table that are used in the manufacture of tablet computers and smart phones, as well as in aircraft engineering, automotive and atomic energy industry and the military sphere.

In February 2013, the Russian government approved a state program on producing rare earth elements in the country, something that was then hailed by head of Yakutia Yegor Borisov who touted ICT Group as a “strategic investor.” Borisov was echoed by Moscow-based investment expert Nikolai Sosnovsky.

"Earlier, ICT Group successfully implemented a spate of projects pertaining to the production of ferro-alloys and precious metals, Sosnovsky says, praising ICT Group’s mining expertise. As for Rostech, it represents the state because the production of rare earth elements is a strategic sector."

The past several years have seen an ever-increasing demand for rare earth metals due to the development of the economy. China presently produces more than 95 percent of the world’s rare earth metals, something that enables Beijing to restrict rare metal exports and push up prices. Nikolai Sosnovsky once again.

"China managed to consolidate practically all global production of rare earth elements, Sosnovsky says, pointing to low-cost labor and low environmental requirements in China. These factors are of great importance to the production of rare earth metals, he concludes."

Other major players react angrily to China’s monopoly on rare earth elements, with Russia, the United States, India and Brazil trying to start their own production.

Analysts say that Russia accounts for only 2 percent of production and consumption of rare earth metals. Another Moscow-based investment expert, Vasily Kuligin, says that Russia has yet to create more refining capacities.

The Russian government has repeatedly signaled its readiness to develop those innovation areas that badly need rare earth metals. Experts say, however, that if the production of rare earth elements outpaces the domestic demand for them, Russia will have to significantly increase rare earth metal exports.

In any case, the diversification of Russia’s raw material industry is of paramount importance, experts say, adding that a global demand for rare earth elements is likely to grow.

Vlad Grinkevich

 http://english.ruvr.ru/2013_04_26/Rare-earth-metals-will-demand-be-in-line-with-supply/

26/4/13

--

-

Related:

• Russia to compete with China in rare earth metals production....