Brussels 'can't handle climate change powers'
Pastor Dale Morgan
Brussels 'can't handle climate change powers'*
By Bruno Waterfield in Brussels
Last Updated: 1:47am BST 09/08/2007
Brussels does not deserve European Union treaty powers to fight climate
change because of its poor record on cutting carbon dioxide emissions,
according to a report published today.
Research by Open Europe concludes that the EU's CO2 Emissions Trading
System is centralised, bureaucratic and fails to deliver.
"Instead of obsessively trying to ram through the rejected EU
constitution it should be sorting out its chronic failures on the
environment," said Neil O'Brien, director of the think tank.
"Under the Emissions Trading System emissions have gone up, not down.
The last thing we should do is reward a failing organisation by giving
it even more power."
As a mark of his commitment to fighting climate change, Gordon Brown is
using his support for new treaty proposals to transfer responsibility
for tackling global warming to the EU.
The pressure group claims the Prime Minister is making a mistake. "We
will have less influence in Europe and it will be even more difficult to
force reform of failing policies," said Mr O'Brien.
The EU Emission Trading Scheme (ETS) sets national limits on carbon
dioxide emitted by industry. It also aims to allow companies to buy and
sell transferable carbon credits as an incentive to cut greenhouse gases.
Open Europe believes the system has "design flaws" and questions whether
the UK and EU have backed a dysfunctional "politically safe" option.
"Businesses are not able to plan investments to reduce emissions because
the price of carbon has gyrated wildly," said Mr O'Brien.
The main criticism is that the European Commission should auction free
carbon permits to prevent unintentional distortions caused by handing
out free permits.
There is also evidence that free allocations are vulnerable to lobby
group pressure and are being used to provide covert subsidies to
polluting industries, the report finds.
The think tank is concerned that the ETS is being billed as the model to
replace the Kyoto climate change accord when it expires in 2012.
The European Commission dismissed the report. "Countries outside the EU
as well as US states like California are looking to join the system,"
said a spokesman. "The ETS could be the nucleus for a future global
trading system."