Energy intensive industries can cut CO2 emissions by 80 percent and enhance their competitiveness at the same time, however, to do so a reform to the EU Emissions Trading System (EU ETS) is needed, it was claimed in the new Carbon Market Watch report published on Wednesday.
“Under the EU ETS, energy-intensive industries are allowed to pollute for free and are even able to profit from their pollution to the tune of billions. The EU ETS currently does not send the right signals for the climate friendly transition needed in our economy, nor does it reward the frontrunners that have invested in low-carbon technologies,” EU Policy Director at Carbon Market Watch Femke de Jong said as reported by Sputnik, May 26th, 2016.
According to Carbon Market Watch press statement, the introduction of smart public policies that involve reforms to the EU ETS, is currently being negotiated. These new policies will set a higher carbon price and move from subsidizing industry pollution to investment in low-carbon innovations.
The report called “The Final Frontier – Decarbonising Europe’s energy intensive industries” focuses on steel, cement and chemicals sectors. According to the organization, together they are responsible for about 70 percent of industry CO2 emissions.