Europese industrie zou voor miljarden hebben geprofiteerd van ETS

160315-ETS15 maart 2016 – Carbon Market Watch meldt dat grote industriële bedrijven voor tientallen miljarden euro’s oneigenlijk gebruik zouden hebben gemaakt van het Europese emissiehandelssysteem.

Dat concludeert Carbon Market Watch uit een onderzoek van het Nederlandse bureau CE Delft. Carbon Watch Market biedt vandaag het rapport in Brussel aan de EU aan.
Volgens het onderzoek zouden Europese bedrijven op grote schaal gratis verkregen CO2-emissirechten hebben doorverkocht of aan hun afnemers te hebben doorberekend.
In de 19 door CE Delft onderzochte EU-lidstaten zou de industrie in de periode 2008-2014 minstens 24 mrd euro hebben verdiend aan de gratis verkregen emissierechten.
In Nederland zou het gaan om de bedrijven Tata Steel (€ 313 mln), Shell (€ 212 mln), Chemelot (€ 90 mln) en Esso (€ 74 mln).

Carbon Market Watch
Uit het persbericht van Carbon Market Watch
‘(…) New analysis shows how industry across Europe has earned a €24 billion windfall from 2008 to 2014, under the EU Emissions Trading Scheme (EU ETS)This is the main policy used across the EU to “cost-effectively”reduce CO2 emissions across industry. The findings in a report ‘Calculation of additional profits of sectors and firms from the EU ETS’, from independent environmental analysts CE Delft, adds momentum to calls from MEPs and campaigners for an overhaul of the policy ahead of the negotiations to revisit the ETS rules this year at EU level.

Femke de Jong, EU policy director at Carbon Market Watch
Femke de Jong, EU policy director at Carbon Market Watch

The sectors profiting most from pollution payouts have been iron and steel, cement, refineries and petrochemicals. The sum netted by industry over the period is more than 10 times the amount the EU has spent on innovation under the EU ETS. With highly profitable companies such as ArcelorMittal and Lafarge benefiting from the windfall, the report adds to existing criticism of the scheme. (…)
However, given that the analysis – commissioned by Carbon Market Watch – was limited to 19 of the EU’s 28 Member States, the actual figure of subsidy awarded is likely to be significantly higher across the region as a whole. The research also underscores the importance of ongoing negotiations to change the current rules, highlighting how outcomes must prevent further exploitation of the EU ETS at the expense of European taxpayers.
Femke de Jong, EU Policy Director at Carbon Market Watch explains: “Instead of making the polluter pay, energy-intensive companies are allowed to pollute for free under the EU ETS. Even worse, they are able to profit from their pollution to the tune of billions. It’s European taxpayers that are picking up this bill as governments forego scarce public money.” (…)’

CE Delft
De samenvatting van CE Delft
Schermafdruk 2016-03-15 08.53.57‘(…) This study has calculated the additional profits that sectors and companies have made from the EU ETS from 2008 to 2014, distinguishing between three types of profits:

  1. Profits from overallocation of free emission allowances. In many sectors/countries, free allowances have been granted in excess of verified emissions, allowing ndustries to  generate additional profits by selling this surplus in the market.
  2. Profits from using CDM/JI credits for compliance. Companies were entitled to a certain extent to use cheaper CDM/JI credits for compliance. This has created additional profits since many companies have used these credits for compliance and sold the saved freely obtained allowances on the ETS market.
  3. Profits from passing through the opportunity costs of freely obtained allowances. There is a ample empirical evidence that companies have been able to pass through (part of) the carbon costs in product prices. Although the allowances were granted free of charge, the majority of sectors were thus able to pass through the opportunity costs of these allowances in product prices, thus making so-called windfall profits.

Profits in each of these categories from 2008 to 2014 have been calculated for 15 sectors (in general the most polluting ones) in 19 countries. The analysis in this study differs from those in earlier studies on this subject by our having corrected for allocation of waste gases to the iron and steel industry, which have been transferred to the electricity sector on a statistical basis. In our view this yields a more accurate estimate of the extent of overallocation to the iron and steel sector compared with other studies.

Our results show that between 2008 and 2014 European industry received additional profits amounting to over 8 billion euro through overallocation. There are considerable differences in the extent of overallocation per country. Spain had the highest profits, totalling over 1.6 billion euro. In Sweden as much as 33% of emission allowances were issued in excess of verified emissions, creating substantial additional profits for Swedish industry. In relative terms, overallocation was least for Slovenia and Poland, where 88% of allocated allowances had to be used for compliance, leaving 1/8 of allowances for sale on the carbon market. It was above all through between 2008 and -2012 that additional profits were made through overallocation. (…)’

Bronnen
Carbon Market Watch, 14 maart 2016: Press Statement: EU hands industry €24 billion in pollution windfall
CE Delft, 15 maart 2016: Calculation of additional profits of sectors and firms from the EU ETS 
CE Delft, rapport: Calculation of additional profits of sectors and firms from the EU ETS (pdf, 80 pag.)
Foto Tata Steel (foto FluxEnergie/© Paul Tolenaar)

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