By Kate Abnett
BRUSSELS, March 12 (Reuters) – Spain, the Netherlands and six other governments have urged the European Union not to dismantle or suspend the bloc’s emissions trading system, its main climate change policy, as Brussels hunts for ways to curb energy prices.
With energy prices surging on disruption to Middle Eastern oil and gas supplies, Brussels is facing calls from governments including Italy to suspend its ETS, which requires power plants to buy permits to cover their CO2 emissions.
“Making fundamental changes to the ETS, calling into question the ETS instrument itself, or suspending it, would constitute a very worrying step backwards,” a group of eight EU countries said in a joint paper, seen by Reuters.
Weakening the scheme would “dramatically penalise early movers who have already invested and innovated in decarbonisation”, said the paper, which was also signed by Denmark, Finland, Luxembourg, Portugal, Slovenia and Sweden.
By putting a price on pollution, the ETS aims to provide a financial incentive to companies to invest in lower-carbon production.
The Commission has so far held off calls from other governments, including Slovakia and the Czech Republic, to weaken the ETS.
But officials are hunting for quick fixes to avoid the Iran conflict triggering a repeat of 2022, when Europe faced record-high energy prices after Russia invaded Ukraine and slashed gas deliveries to Europe.
The European Commission has said it will provide options for EU leaders to consider at a summit on 19 March. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said on Wednesday Brussels was exploring a gas price cap, but did not mention changes to the ETS.
The ETS cost comprises around 11%, on average, of electricity bills in Europe, according to EU data. It results in higher costs for countries like Poland, where the ETS’s contribution to power bills is 24% due to the dominant role of coal power plants in the power mix.
(Reporting by Kate Abnett; Editing by Kirsten Donovan)
