(see also Swedish Ministry of Environment Press Release)
The Swedish
government yesterday unveiled draft legislation further
strengthening its commitment to cut greenhouse gases
beyond levels
required under the Kyoto protocol
and introducing new measures to
achieve this. Several
of the measures were announced in this autumn's
draft budget statement
Sweden will now aim for
a 4% cut in emissions between 1990 and
2008-12,
the government said, whereas it had previously been
aiming for
minus 2%. Its legal commitment under
the Kyoto protocol is only to
limit any increase
in emissions to 4% above 1990 levels.
Environment
minister Kjell Larsson said that the proposed legislation
was further evidence that "Sweden is and will continue
to be a world
leader on environmental issues".
The government felt it would be
"wrong; environmentally,
morally and economically" to exploit its
Kyoto
entitlement to a 4% rise in emissions.
Few other
EU countries have voluntarily taken on climate targets
tougher than their Kyoto commitments, in most cases
because they have
little hope of even reaching the
official limits. However, the UK is
aiming for a
20% cut in carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions by 2010,
compared with its Kyoto target of 12.5%. Germany is
aiming for a 25%
cut in CO2 by 2005, compared with
its Kyoto target of 21% by 2008-12.
Carbon sinks
and flexible mechanisms will not be used in order to
reach the target, the government also announced, though
some
"complementary" use of mechanisms
such as emissions trading is not
ruled out entirely
after 2004.
In addition to ratification of the
protocol itself, initial measures
will include "a
climate investment programme, information campaigns,
alternative fuel strategies, instructions to government
property
agencies to increase energy efficiency
and reduce dependency on fossil
fuels, [and] green
tax adjustments".
Also under consideration
are the introduction of green certificates
for alternative
fuels and inclusion of carbon dioxide emissions in
aviation (take-off and landing) surcharges. The impact
of out-of-town
shopping centres on transport patterns
will be scrutinised, and
economic penalties and
incentives used more aggressively.
Additional
legislation is not ruled out, while voluntary agreements
are also to be encouraged and "sectoral responsibility
will be
developed so as to clarify which government
authorities are responsible
for climate policy in
a given area, for example transport, industry,
electricity
and heating".
Greenpeace described the announcement
as a "stumbling step in the
right direction",
urging the government to fully exclude the use of the
Kyoto flexible mechanisms and not to sell CO2 emission
quotas to other
countries.
* In a related
development, Norway plans to ratify the Kyoto protocol
next spring, environment minister Børge Brende
said yesterday.
Climate bill
Anette Törnqvist
Press Secretary
08-405 20 27
070-548 76 80
anette.tornqvist@
environment.ministry.se
Conny HäggD
Deputy
Director 08-405 21 90 070-377 67 01
Emissions
of greenhouse gases in Sweden shall be reduced by four
per
cent by 2010. The national goal is to be achieved
without using carbon
sinks or flexible mechanisms.
Climate investment programmes,
information campaigns,
a strategy for alternative fuels, commissions to
government property managers to improve energy efficiency
and reduce
dependence on fossil fuels and a green
tax shift are some of the
measures to be taken to
attain the climate goal.
There will be reviews in
2004 and 2008 to follow up progress and the
Government
may then propose additional measures.
The Government
and the Left Party present these proposals in the
climate bill. The Government took a decision on Thursday
to present the
bill to the Swedish Riksdag.
“The climate issue is the most important environmental
issue of our
time. In the bill we formulate a climate
strategy for the future. We
present a number of
different measures in several areas which taken
together will carry developments in the right direction.
Sweden leads
the way in the environmental sphere
and we will continue to do so,”
says the Minister
for the Environment, Kjell Larsson.
“We have
the opportunity to increase emissions but it would be
wrong to
avail ourselves of it: environmentally,
morally and economically.
Environmentally, since
emissions must be reduced to avoid climate
change.
Morally, since the rich countries are responsible for
today’s
problems. We are responsible for most
emissions today and we have been
responsible for
emissions in recent decades. Economically, since all
countries will be forced to reduce their emissions and
invest in new
environmentally friendly technology.”
“If we begin the transformation early it will be
less expensive and
better. The countries that postpone
making the transformation will have
a short period
in which to do so and it will then be more expensive.
The countries that lead the way and invest in new environmentally
friendly technology can sell their products and know-how
to other
countries. This will benefit Swedish competitiveness,”
Mr Larsson
says.
Swedish emissions of greenhouse
gases shall be at least four per cent
lower in 2010
than they were in 1990. (In the strict sense of the
Kyoto
Protocol the target year is not 2010 but an
average of the years
2008-2012). The goal is to
be attained without using carbon sinks and
flexible
mechanisms, that is to say trade and environmental investments
in other countries. In connection with a review in 2004
the Government
can propose a complementary goal
that includes flexible mechanisms.
In this way,
Sweden is undertaking a considerably greater commitment
than that required under the Kyoto Protocol. Sweden
has relatively low
emissions per capita and is entitled
to increase its emissions by four
per cent (excluding
forest sinks). But, instead, there will now be a
four per cent reduction.
The reduction refers to
six greenhouse gases: carbon dioxide, methane,
nitrous
oxide, HFCs (hydrofluorocarbons), sulphur hexafluoride
and
perfluorocarbons.
In order to attain these
objectives, the Government and the Left Party
propose
a number of measures, among others:- Climate investment
programmes in the municipalities. The local investment
programmes will
be replaced as of the turn of the
year by support for climate projects
in municipalities.-
Information to increase awareness of the climate
issue.- A strategy for alternative fuels.
- The
promotion of electricity from renewable sources of energy
through
so-called green certificates.- The Environmental
Objectives Council
(which was presented in the Swedish
environmental objectives bill in
May) will coordinate
the authorities’ climate work.- Government
property owners will be instructed to describe possibilities
of
increased energy efficiency and reduced dependence
on fossil fuels.- A
commission will analyse the
areas in which the efficiency of fossil
fuels can
be improved or where they can be replaced by other fuels.
Other measures presented include the possible introduction
of green
certificates for alternative motor fuels
and the inclusion of emissions
of carbon dioxide
in aircraft landing and take-off charges. In the next
review of the Planning and Building Act, the question
of external
shopping centres and their impact on
transport will be raised.
Economic policy levers
(environmental taxes, subsidies, removal of
subsidies),
legislation and voluntary agreements will be used to
reduce
emissions. Sectoral responsibility needs
to be developed so that it is
clear which authorities
are responsible for climate policy in a
specific
area, for example transport, industry and electricity
and
heating.
At the international level Sweden
is working for a reduction of
emissions of carbon
dioxide, inter alia, by support to investments in
Eastern Europe (a total of 70 projects) as well as contributions
to the
Global Environmental Fund (GEF) amounting
to almost SEK 450 million
between 1998 and 2002.
About 40 per cent of the money has been used for
climate efforts.
The strategy includes the currently
applicable energy and transport
policy decisions,
the Government’s infrastructure bill and proposals
for the next energy bill in the spring of 2002. Additional
measures and
clarifications may be needed and follow-up
is therefore an essential
part of the strategy.
Last but not least, the Government proposes that the
Swedish Riksdag
approve the Kyoto Protocol so that
Sweden can ratify it during 2002.
The Energy agency
for the economy agreed with the government in July
to implement goals under the Energy Switzerland programme
to cut CO2
from heating oils by 15% and CO2 from
motor fuels by 8% by 2010 based
on their 1990 levels.
It is now to pass down this commitment to a wide
range of industry and service sectors, with deals to
be signed by
June.
Other actions agreed by
the Energy Switzerland coordinating group
include
the introduction of appliance energy labelling rules
in line
with current EU law, and for new voluntary
agreements to be forged with
industry on cutting
CO2 emissions from cars and electrical appliances.
If agreed objectives are not met, the environment ministry
said, then
it would introduce legal requirements.
Meanwhile,
Swiss cantons are to work with the building industry
to
ensure that a national energy efficiency standard
is universally
applied, and a body representing
Switzerland's renewable energy
industry is to propose
measures to increase the sector's size.
Follow-up:
Swiss environment ministry press release
http://www.uvek.admin.ch/gs_uvek/de/dokumentation/medienmitteilungen/artikel/20011127/00855/index.html.
"There are a lot of problems in operation,"
Rolf Bauerschmidt of
German firm Stadtwerke Bremen
(SwB) told delegates yesterday at a
Brussels conference
on electric technologies and sustainable
development.
Mr Bauerschmidt heads Eurelectric's energy services
team,
which last year published a report urging
greater regulatory support
for energy services.
"The
outcome has not been so good as we expected," he
said. Barriers
to greater uptake included low consumer
understanding of long-term
advantages of the contracts,
and inability of utilities to get to grips
with
a new type of market. Only 4% of SwB's sales were in
service
contracts, he said. The figure could double
within four years and rise
to around 13% within
five to seven years, he added.
The European Commission
has promised to propose a directive next year
pushing
energy services as part of a drive to improve "demand-side
management" (ED 23/10/01
http://www.environmentdaily.com/articles/index.cfm?action=article&ref=10871).
But Rob Bradley of Climate network Europe told the conference
that
falling power prices following energy liberalisation
had created a
"difficult environment"
for energy services that would require "very
creative thinking" to overcome.
At the conference
Eurelectric also argued for a shift from fossil
fuel-generated heat processes in industry, such as coal-fired
furnaces,
to electric power. This often had greater
end-use efficiency and could
reduce overall greenhouse
gas emissions, it said. An ongoing study is
investigating
the reduction potential.
The deal was reached by Austrian chancellor Wolfgang
Schüssel and
Czech premier Miloš Zeman
yesterday, at a meeting in Brussels brokered
by
EU enlargment commissioner Günther Verheugen. Prague
appears to
have come off better in the accord, with
the political threat to
commercial operation of
the plant removed and the country's accession
no
longer endangered.
Under the agreement the Czech
government will implement a series of
changes recommended
by the EU's "atomic questions group," which
assesses nuclear safety in accession countries using
reports from
member states' nuclear regulators (ED
09/11/00
http://www.environmentdaily.com/articles/index.cfm?action=article&ref=8715).
It will also comply with the results of an environmental
impact
assessment of the site (ED 14/02/01
http://www.environmentdaily.com/articles/index.cfm?action=article&ref=9317).
The
agreement will be transformed into a protocol to be
attached to
the country's accession treaty with
the EU. This means both countries
will have recourse
to the European court of justice if the agreement is
broken. To become part of the treaty the protocol must
also be
approved by other EU member states.
Follow-up:
European Commission enlargement directorate
http://europa.eu.int/comm/enlargement/
Still much opposition in Austria (Reuters)
See also previous articles this month on Temelin
Czech
sale of electricity industry
The pioneering UK scheme will involve
nearly 50 industry sectors and
is the most comprehensive
initiative of its type anywhere in the world.
It
is designed to enable "learning by doing"
ahead of introduction of
an EU-wide scheme and then
full global trading under the Kyoto protocol
from
2008.
The key difference between the UK scheme
and European Commission
proposals for an EU-wide
initiative published at the end of October is
that
the former is voluntary while the latter would be mandatory.
It
is difficult to see how a voluntary scheme in
one EU country could
co-exist with a mandatory one
in others, a Commission official told
Environment
Daily.
A direct consequence of having a voluntary
scheme is that the UK
government has had to offer
financial incentives worth up to UK£215m
(euros
346m) to companies to get involved. This is what sparked
the
investigation into the scheme's compatibility
with EU state aid rules,
now completed in the UK's
favour. But it marks a second important
difference
with the proposed EU scheme, which would involve no
subsidies.
Another difference highlighted by the
Commission is the fact that the
UK scheme specifically
excludes electricity and heat generators,
covering
instead industrial end-users, whereas the EU proposals
include
them. In addition, the UK's compliance regime
is based mainly on
clawing back incentive payments
and has no mandatory financial
penalties as foreseen
in the EU scheme.
The UK government brushed aside
these criticisms today, claiming that
the key factor
was that state aid approval meant the national scheme
could start as planned. A spokesperson added that lengthy
negotiations
must still be completed before the
final shape of the EU scheme is
known, and that
Britain would be working "to ensure sufficient
flexibility for national schemes".
As currently
planned, the UK scheme is to run until 2007, two years
after the planned launch of EU-wide emission trading.
The spokesperson
suggested that in practice there
might well be delays in this schedule,
meaning that
"there is unlikely to be a long period when the
two
schemes are running alongside each other".
*
In a related development, the UK environment ministry
today
announced a one-month extension of the deadline
for firms to register
for the national emission
trading scheme to 1 February next year.
"This
is to allow companies more time to compile source lists,
submit
protocols, verify their baseline and develop
bidding strategies," the
ministry said in a
statement.
Follow-up: European Commission press
release see below
UK
environment ministry backgrounder on UK scheme
Brussels, 28 November 2001
The European Commission has approved, under the State aid rules, the United Kingdom's greenhouse gases emission trading scheme, which is supposed to start early in 2002. The Commission's green light allows the UK to gain early trading experience before an EU wide system will enter into force, for which the Commission only recently made a proposal to the Council and the European Parliament. The Commission acknowledged the positive aspects of the UK initiative, but indicated that the substantial differences between the UK approach and the proposed Commission's directive might lead to market distortions in the future. In this case, modifications to the UK scheme would be proposed to bring it in line with EC legislation. However, the Commission would welcome it if the UK government worked towards the same objective on its own initiative.
Emission trading is an efficient market-based policy instrument to tackle Climate Change. Depending on their emission reduction costs for achieving emission targets, companies can invest in emission reductions or reduce emissions below their targets and sell the surplus to another company that has higher reduction costs, and therefore prefers to meet its target by buying allowances. Such a mechanism allows achieving overall emission reductions in a cost-effective way.
A number of important choices have to be made in the design of a trading mechanism. A voluntary scheme e.g. may need a financial incentive for companies to enter, while a mandatory system has no need of State support. The scope of participants defines the capacity of emission reductions that can be achieved. Last but not least, the design of a compliance mechanism will influence the respect of the scheme.
The UK intends to introduce a voluntary trading scheme to reduce greenhous gas emissions. The scheme grants an incentive totalling £30 million net of tax p.a. for a period of five years, spread across all entities entering the scheme in return for participating and taking on absolute emission reductions. Companies will bid for the incentive in an auction.
The scheme further establishes an emission trading system which allows target holders from the emission trading scheme and from Climate Change agreements, to trade emission allowances amongst them.
Both the incentive money and the trading mechanism have to be considered as State aid, since they confer advantages to certain companies and potentially affect trade between Member States. However, the Commission considers that the scheme is compatible with the Community guidelines on State aid for environmental protection.
This assessment is based i.a. on the following considerations: Emission trading is an essential, competition-oriented instrument to achieve the Kyoto targets; the scheme rewards companies going beyond existing standards and achieves a net environmental benefit; the scheme in its present form is limited in time until the entry into force of an EU instrument on emission trading; the choice of a voluntary system makes the incentive necessary, and there is a mechanism to ensure the recuperation of the incentive in case the environmental targets are not met.
The UK scheme differs significantly from the choices the Commission made in its recent proposal on a draft directive on EU-wide emission trading. The EU proposal is based on a mandatory approach without financial incentives. Contrary to the UK scheme, it makes electricity and heat production facilities directly responsible for their emissions, a choice that should open to a greater extent lower-cost emission reductions. Furthermore, the EU proposal foresees a mandatory financial penalty per tonne of CO2 equivalent emitted over allowance holdings in addition to the obligation to make up for shortfalls. The UK undertook to introduce equivalent financial penalties in the near future.
The Commission has welcomed the positive initiative of the UK government to introduce emission trading before an EU wide system enters into force and wanted to support the possibility for an early learning experience from the UK scheme.
However, the Commission also indicated that the substantial differences of the UK approach and the proposed Commission's directive might lead to market distortions in the future. In this case, the Commission would propose in time modifications to the UK scheme to allow a smooth adaptation to EC legislation. However, the Commission would welcome it if the UK government worked towards the same objective on its own initiative.
The report is based on five government-defined policy
objectives:
reducing the need to travel, cutting
congestion and environmental
impacts, improving
transport safety, and creating a more inclusive
society. It then considers how some European cities
and regions have
successfully achieved these goals,
in order to set standards for the
UK.
A number
of key success factors are found, including integrated
institutional and funding arrangements and public transport
coordination. Most importantly, the report identifies
"two generations
of neglect" as central
to the UK's relatively poor performance.
Follow-up:
Commission for integrated transport
press release
http://www.cfit.gov.uk/pn/011126/index.htm
and summary report
http://www.cfit.gov.uk/research/ebp/exec/pdf/exec.pdf.
Tuesday, November
27, 2001
By Environmental News Network
The Geysers geothermal power plant near Calistoga, California.
Reducing our dependence on fossil fuels will only occur when consumers are given the choice of a green power option, researchers from two national laboratories have found.
The team of scientists from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Golden, Colorado and the Berkeley National Lab's Environmental Energy Technology Division discovered that consumers will choose cleaner sources of power such as wind, solar, geothermal and biomass, if they have the choice.
"Our study shows that giving consumers energy supply choices can be a powerful mechanism for moving renewable energy into the marketplace," says Blair Swezey of the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, a coauthor of the study entitled, "Forecasting the Growth of Green Power Markets in the United States."
"Market research consistently shows that consumers prefer to receive their power from clean energy sources," Swezey says.
Under the best conditions, use of green power could grow 40 percent in less than a decade, to a capacity of 7,000 megawatts. But slow growth of renewable energy choices will be the actual scenario, the study concludes.
Reaching a high growth pattern for adoption of green power sources requires that "restructuring proceed without delay, that market rules in restructured markets are conducive to competition, that consumer awareness and acceptance of green power shows significant growth, and that the premium spread between the cost of renewable and competing generation technologies continues to narrow."
But the California energy crunch that started late in 2000 has set the green power market back across the country. California was a state that deregulated its power market, allowing consumers to choose which electricity company would supply their energy. More than 70,000 Californians chose energy generated by geothermal, wind and solar power.
But the green power market in California collapsed after the past year's energy crunch, and consumer choice was suspended. The study's coauthor Ryan Wiser of the Berkeley Lab says, "the California experience shows that the transition to competitive retail power markets will not be smooth."
A nationwide reaction to public utility deregulation followed, with states turning away from plans to deregulate their own electricity markets.
To take the California experience and its effects into account, Wiser and Swezy decided to include "restructuring regrets" and "restructuring meltdown" scenarios for the future of green power markets in their computer forecasting models.
They constructed low-growth and high-growth models by studying the actual penetration of green power markets to date and by taking into account a range of other factors, including public policy.
To gain insight into the progress of green products in the marketplace, they reviewed the history of consumer goods such as bottled water, organic food, and compact fluorescent bulbs, and to activities such as recycling and socially responsible investing.
The most relevant lesson was that "it often takes some time for markets to build." Even with something so familiar as long distance telephone service, the researchers note, it took 15 years for AT&T to lose half of its market share after competition appeared on the scene.
Wiser and Swezy conclude that the size of the green power market remains small but that there are prospects for sizable growth. Slow, steady growth in the early years is normal, they conclude, but also say that green power could substantially impact means of power production overall.
To make a real change from reliance of fossil fuels, green power must not only be available, it might have to be aggressively promoted and its costs reduced or supported by government subsidies, Wiser and Swezey advise.
Vigorous
promotion and education are essential to success of
green power, and market options alone cannot do the
job of increasing reliance of renewable energy sources,
they say, and if competitive retail markets fail to
materialize, utility programs must pick up the slack.
back to CNE news page
Nov 7 2001
DOW JONES NEWSWIRES
LONDON -- Italy
has become the latest country in Europe to gear up for
trading "green certificates" - said by promoters
to be an efficient, market-based method for supporting
renewable energy - but the contradictions in its reforms
could hinder the development of a real market.
With the recent publication of new market rules, the country is making what looks like a dramatic shift away from a subsidy system which has sparked controversy in Italy as well countries such as Spain and Germany, in favor of a more market-based incentive.
However, given the generosity of Italy's definition of renewable energy, the very low target for renewable generation in the new plan, the lack of certainty on the exact targets the industry will be subject to after 2002 and the lack of monetary sanctions for companies that don't comply, the prospects of a liquid market for Italian utilities' green certificates both within Italy and abroad are slim for now, observers say.
A green certificate is a tradable instrument issued to renewable energy producers, which can then sell the certificates to companies required by law to purchase a certain quota of green power. They are also used to certify the voluntary acquisition of green power by an energy user.
Last month, Italy published rules for a mandatory market for green certificates designed to complement the new bourse for conventional power due to start trading in early 2002. Under the 1999 "Bersani decree" governing energy market deregulation, all companies producing or importing more than 100 gigawatt-hours of power a year will be obliged to generate themselves, or to buy through certificates, a given quota of energy produced from renewable sources. Grid operator Gestore della Rete di Trasmissione Nazionale, or GRTN, is responsible for issuing the certificates.
The Bersani decree set the initial target for 2001 at 2% and recognized for the achievement of that target only output from plants that started operation after April 1999.
This obligation overlaps with a feed-in tariff under the existing so-called CIP 6 program. Under this, GRTN buys, at a fixed price, power generated by renewable plants, and resells it to the free market.
The certificates issued for generators eligible for the CIP 6 program but whose plants came into operation after April 1999 will be assigned to GRTN, which will sell them at a fixed price, which the grid operator expects to be around ITL130 a kilowatt-hour (Euro 0.067/KWh). That's a much smaller premium to conventional power prices than currently exists in, for example, Germany.
Most observers say this will most likely form the benchmark for pricing other green certificates.
A Market Without Trading?
The Italian project is unique in that it combines two
means of supporting renewable energy which are often
seen as conflicting: a renewable obligation, which is
the model chosen in the U.K., and a feed-in tariff,
similar to the one which German and Spanish renewable
generators benefit from.
However, according to figures provided by the GRTN, in 2002 the supply of green certificates is likely to be above demand, due to the relatively low 2% target and to the availability of certificates for the CIP 6 segment of the market.
A supply overhang may put a question mark over the market's ability to develop any real liquidity in the near future.
"It's a market that isn't really a market," said Marcella Pavan, head of the environmental and fiscal office at the energy regulator, adding she was speaking in a personal capacity. She said that in order to have a functioning market in place in the coming years, the current government would have to specify the targets that would be in place after 2002.
The European Union renewables directive, which came into force in the summer, mentions an indicative target for Italy of 25% of electricity from renewable sources by 2010, but there have been no indications of whether the current right-wing government intends to raise, or even confirm for the coming years, the 2% target that was set by the previous center-left government.
Moreover, says Pavan, it would be important to have monetary sanctions against companies which don't comply, such as exist in U.K. under its Renewables Obligation. The only sanctions for noncompliance set by the decree are non-participation in the future electricity exchange.
"Potentially this is scary, but in practice it has no meaning," said Pavan, adding no regulator would choose to make the lights go off by kicking out of the market a company like Enel.
Private Initiatives Are Key
Some
promoters of green-certificate trading hope the answer
to low domestic demand lies in foreign demand. Nina
Marenzi, a broker at U.S. brokerage Natsource Tullett,
said that her company has already received offers from
Italian utilities hoping to sell the certificates obtained
under the current voluntary arrangement to companies
outside Italy.
"Prices are higher abroad," she said, adding that it is still difficult to find buyers because E.U. governments haven't approved the fungibility of certificates obtained in different countries.
The fungibility of certificates obtained in Italy with those obtained in the U.K. and other parts of Europe is also hampered by the different definition of renewable generation.
In Italy, the definition is more generous than in the U.K., and includes large-scale hydro generation and all types of waste incineration. In the U.K. only hydropower plants with a capacity of less than 20 megawatts, and only the biodegradable component of waste incineration, are considered renewable for the purpose of the renewables obligation - a decision based on the fact large hydropower and waste incineration projects don't usually depend on economic incentives.
Uncertainty about the regulatory framework hasn't deterred private sector investors from coming up with their own initiatives, which could breathe some life into what would otherwise be a market without trading.
Later this month, representatives from utilities Enel SpA (EN), Edison SpA (I.EDS), Sondel SpA, the renewable energy producers' association APER, electricity industry association Unapace and GRTN will discuss operational issues that could enable Italian utilities to participate in a European-wide project for trading voluntary green certificates under the Renewable Energy Certificates System, or RECS.
RECS is a pan-European plan to allow cross-border trading in energy produced by non-polluting sources, which are frequently ringfenced from the conventional wholesale market.
Web sites: http://www.recs.org
-By
Germana Canzi, Dow Jones Newswires; +44 20 7842-9283;
germana.canzi@dowjones.com.
LONDON - Nuclear
power group British Energy and British engineering giant
AMEC may invest in a 500 million pound ($708.6 million)
wind project in the Outer Hebrides, northern Scotland,
the companies said yesterday.
"It is
very early days and it will be some time before we make
a formal planning application," a spokesman for
the group told Reuters.
He said British Energy was
in talks with engineering group AMEC and various government
bodies about proposals to build the world's largest
wind project on, and offshore, the island of Lewis.
AMEC confirmed it was taking part in studies about the wind project, which would have output of about 600 megawatts, roughly the capacity of a smallish conventionally-fuelled power station.
Should the scheme go ahead it would significantly add to the amount of green energy produced in Britain.
The government is committed to increasing green energy generation to 10.4 percent by 2011 of total output from 2.8 percent currently as part of plans to curb greenhouse gas emissions, blamed by many scientists as contributing to global warming.
Other large scale wind projects have faltered in the past but recent government statements point to increasing support in pushing renewable energy developments.
Earlier this month Energy Minister Brian Wilson announced a feasiblity study into a 400-mile (640 km) undersea power cable from the Hebrides down the western coastline of Britain to link offshore wind farms and other renewable energy projects to the national electricity tranmission network.
Should such a cable be given the go-ahead it would significantly enhance the prospects for wind developments in the region.
Britain is shortly to publish its review of energy policy and drafts of the document suggest renewable power will move towards centre frame of government policy.
The government's Performance and Innovation Unit (PIU) recently predicted that advances in wind technology will see the cost of wind power dropping significantly over the next 20 years, undercutting electricity from conventional power stations.
REUTERS NEWS SERVICE
back
to CNE news page
Brokered
by producers' association Ceced and the Commission's
energy
directorate, the agreement was initiated
in 1999 and joins a 1997 deal
on the efficiency
of washing machines (ED 19/09/97
http://www.environmentdaily.com/articles/index.cfm?action=article&ref=1551).
A third agreement, on domestic water heaters, was also
cleared by the
Commission today.
Under the
dishwasher deal, manufacturers will end the production
of
all appliances rated lower than "C"
on the domestic appliance energy
efficiency scale
by the end of 2003, a similar commitment to the one
agreed for washing machines. The alphabetic rating system
has
previously come in for stern criticism (ED 11/09/98
http://www.environmentdaily.com/articles/index.cfm?action=article&ref=3733).
Clearance
to operate what is technically a producer cartel was
granted
because the energy savings and environmental
benefits were judged to
outweigh the restrictions
on competition.
Today's go-ahead was largely a
formality, but the fact that it was
necessary emphasises
the absence of an EU framework for agreeing
environmentally
motivated voluntary agreements. The Commission's
environment directorate is working on a policy paper
to address the
gap.
Welcoming today's approval,
Luigi Meli of Ceced said it heralded a new
phase
of voluntary agreements, with negotiations due to start
next
month on both a revised washing machine agreement
and a new one on
refrigerators and freezers.
He
declined to detail Ceced's position before talks begin,
but said
there was little scope for making the best
washing machines more
efficient and suggested instead
increasing average effiency across the
market "fleet".
There was more room for improvement in fridges, he
said.
In return, the industry will want shelter
from legislative action as
the EU gears up to implement
the European climate change programme,
where a directive
on energy efficiency of appliances is one of the
promised measures. "We expect a standstill on...top-down
legislation
and...political will to support the
voluntary agreements," Mr Meli told
Environment
Daily today
Follow-up: European Commission press release
The rise will initially
put four pesetas on the price of a litre of
petrol,
diesel, kerosene and bunker oil, and from September
up to four
pesetas more at the discretion of each
autonomous region. Fuel duties
currently stand at
euros 0.37 per litre for petrol and euros 0.27 for
diesel.
The move comes as something of a surprise
given the Spanish
government's longstanding policy
of maintaining low levels of fuel duty
and its opposition
to all attempts to agree EU-wide minimum duties on
energy products
On the other hand, Spain is further
away from meeting its target for
limiting greenhouse
gas emissions under the Kyoto protocol than any
other EU country
Álvaro Mazarrasa,
director general of Spanish petroleum industry
organisation
AOP told Environment Daily he believed the decision
was in
part a response to a drop in government revenue
caused by falling oil
prices, but also "because
of irresistible pressure from European
partners
to harmonise fuel duties".
There has been
no official confirmation of any change in policy,
however. A government spokesperson told Environment
Daily that the
decision "is not related to
the effects of the combustion of
hydrocarbons on
air quality and public health".
Autonomous
regional governments run by the opposition socialist
party
have said they will not apply the discretionary
element of the tax
rise. The party's economics spokesman
Jordi Sevilla accused the
government of "acting
unthinkingly to increase government revenue in
the
face of recession".
Follow-up: Spanish revenue
ministry http://www.minhac.es/.
MAINZ, Germany-Germany's
Green Party said a new law designed to support energy-efficient
combined heat and power generation could be delayed
due to continued wrangling over details with municipal
utilities.
A draft of the law, due to come
into force in January, was not presented to parliament
on November 16 as scheduled because regional utilities
have persuaded the government to reopen talks on extending
the subsidy scheme beyond the original deadline of 2010,
sources added.
"I doubt that the CHP (combined
heat and power) law will be presented to parliament
by year-end because discussions with a number of municipal
utilities have been renewed and I would therefore not
expect the law to be introduced in January," Hans-Josef
Fell, the Green Party's parliamentary spokesman on research
told Reuters in an interview late on Wednesday.
The Social Democrat (SPD)/Green Party coalition government agreed with industry in June on a new CHP law which targets a 23 million tonne annual cut in carbon dioxide emissions by 2010 through increased CHP production.
But an industry source, who did not want to be named, said a large number of politicians in the SPD faction represent local utilities and are quibbling over the law on their behalf.
CHP uses excess energy from power generation to heat buildings, thereby increasing overall energy efficiency, and accounts for 10 percent of total power production in Germany.
Half of all German plants are controlled by municipalities, while the other half are industrial on-site units.
Industrial CHP producers are sceptical about the promotion of CHP because of existing over-capacity in the German power market, Europe's biggest.
The new law would allow CHP producers to charge an additional three pfennigs/kilowatt hour (pf/kWh) for power produced at large plants, five pf/kWh at smaller ones, and 10 pf/kWh at CHP plants using fuel cells.
Total investment in CHP is expected to total 8.7 billion marks ($3.91 billion), which will be mostly collected from consumers across the supply chain.
But only CHP producers who feed electricity into the grid - namely municipal utilities - qualify for the subsidy, while energy companies who produce electricity and heat from CHP for their own use receive no incentive from the law to increase such generation.
The Greens want an increase in the duration of the law beyond 2010 to encourage producers to invest in building new CHP plants, Fell said in the interview on the sidelines of a Euroforum energy conference.
Christof Bauer, director of corporate energy management of German chemicals group Degussa , which produces half of its generation needs from CHP, told Reuters that while his company is unhappy with the law, it is prepared to accept it in its current form.
"We would not want an extension beyond 2010 because that would mean an increase in the total amount of the subsidy, and we are only willing to tolerate the 8.7 billion marks proposed," Bauer said.
Story by Claire-Louise Isted
REUTERS NEWS SERVICE
Residents of a small
town in the western Japan prefecture of Mie on
Sunday
voted against the idea of having a power company build
a nuclear
power plant in the region in the first
such plebiscite to be held with no
pending construction
plans at stake.
The result of the vote has rendered
it unlikely that the town of Miyama
will host such
a plant as a local government ordinance requires the
town
mayor to respect the wishes of the majority
of voters casting valid ballots.
Voters showed a
keen interest in the legally non-binding plebiscite,
the
third held in Japan on nuclear power plants.
Turnout came to 88.64% in the
town with 8,748 eligible
voters.
Although there is no specific nuclear power
plant at stake, the Miyama
vote could signal a setback
for the central government's pro-nuclear policy,
since it follows rejections in the two previous plebiscites
on nuclear power
projects -- one in 1996 and another
in May this year -- both held in Niigata
Prefecture
on the Sea of Japan coast. An official at the Ministry
of
Economy, Trade and Industry had said earlier
the result of the vote would
not have a direct bearing
on nuclear policy, since Miyama is not even a
candidate
site for construction.
Unlike the previous two plebiscites,
the latest vote was proposed by
nuclear advocates,
namely local businesses who want local utility Chubu
Electric Power Co. to build a nuclear power plant, hoping
it would galvanize
the slowing local economy centering
on fishery and forestry. Opponents,
meanwhile, drew
public attention to the potential dangers of such a
power
plant in the wake of accidents at the Hamaoka
Nuclear Power Station run by
Chubu Electric, based
in Nagoya.
The pipe rupture and water leakage at
Chubu Electric's Hamaoka station in
Shizuoka Prefecture
took place just days before the campaign for the
plebiscite began Tuesday. Chubu Electric first announced
a plan to build a
nuclear power plant with three
candidate sites in Mie Prefecture back in
1963,
which
included a site in Miyama.
In the face
of strong opposition from Miyama residents, however,
Chubu
Electric eventually focused on a site bordering
Kisei and Nanto towns. But
the nuclear project generated
animosity between residents of the two towns,
with
a majority in Kisei wanting it and a majority in Nanto
rejecting it.
In February last year, Mie Gov. Masayasu
Kitagawa entirely canceled the
project, citing a
lack of consensus among local residents. Chubu Electric
also subsequently gave up on the project.
In February
this year, members of the Miyama town's chamber of commerce
and industry as well as others submitted a petition,
representing 64% of the
local residents, to the
local assembly to lobby for the construction of the
plant in the town. The move, however, was immediately
followed by
opponents filing their own petition
against a nuclear power plant to the
town assembly,
which subsequently set up a special panel to examine
both
petitions.
Following nearly six months
of deliberation, the panel recommended that
the
residents' opinions be heard about the project, prompting
the assembly
to enact in late September an ordinance
to hold the plebiscite. In
August1996, in the first
plebiscite on the construction of a nuclear power
plant in Japan, involving Tohoku Electric Power Co.,
the town of Maki in
Niigata Prefecture dealt a blow
to the central government's nuclear power
policy
as a majority voted against it.
In May this year,
a majority of voters in the town of Kariwa, also in
Niigata Prefecture, opposed Tokyo Electric Power Co.'s
plan to use recycled
nuclear fuel containing plutonium
at a local nuclear plant.
back
to CNE news page
See also FT article on UK clash with proposed EU emissions trading scheme, 9th Nov
and CNE information on EU emissions trading
LONDON
- Britain said yesterday it will start auctioning emissions
reduction allowances and incentives in late February,
ahead of the planned launch in April of the world's
first national CO2 emissions trading scheme.
"The
first auction will take place in late February 2002
in readiness for the emissions trading scheme to begin
in April 2002," Henry Derwent, director of emissions
trading at the Department of Environment, Food and Rural
Affairs (DEFRA), told Reuters on the sidelines of an
energy conference in London.
The auctions would
start slightly later than previously expected as some
companies wanted more time to prepare for the start
of emissions trading, he said.
Companies will bid competitively on the amount of polluting carbon dioxide emissions they will cut.
Those which pledge to cut most pollution will win a cash incentive taken from a total 215 million pound ($305 million) government incentive spread over five years from 2003-2004.
Britain announced its emissions trading scheme in August as part of its drive to cut greenhouse gas pollution, seen by many scientists as an important contributor to global warming.
Under the voluntary scheme, companies will either reduce their emissions in-house or will be allowed to buy the right to pollute from other companies which have exceeded their targets.
The government has set its own target to reduce CO2 emissions to 20 percent below 1990 levels by 2010, well beyond its commitment under the U.N. Kyoto Protocol of 12.5 percent.
Government figures estimate CO2 emissions for 2000 will be around 150 million tonnes of carbon equivalent.
Emissions trading will form part of the government's wider Climate Change Programme which ministers say could deliver cuts in greenhouse gas emissions of 23 percent below 1990 levels.
REUTERS NEWS SERVICE
Britain
will eventually have to drop its new carbon
emissions
trading scheme or make it conform to the proposed
Europe-wide system, Margot Wallstrom, the European environment
commissioner, warned yesterday.
The prospect
of a clash between the two systems of
trading carbon
emissions grew yesterday as Ms Wallstrom made clear
she regarded the UK scheme as interesting but
fundamentally
incompatible with the plan proposed by the Commission
late last month.
Speaking at the United Nations
climate change talks
in Marrakech, the commissioner
said she hoped that "the UK would see their system,
which is quite different (from the
Commission plan),
as alearning-by-doing period, but in the end there will
be an EU-wide scheme based on our proposal".
Margaret
Beckett, the UK environment secretary, also at the Marrakech
talks, countered by claiming that the UK scheme, due
to come into effect next April, was the only comprehensive
system "on the horizon" and arguing that Europe
needed to "get the
experience of how the UK
scheme will work out in practice".
Both
schemes aim to reduce the cost and thereby maximise
the efficiency of cutting greenhouse gases, but do so
by different
means.
The UK scheme is voluntary,
providing financial incentives of up to Pounds 215m
(Dollars 314m) over five years for energy
users
to commit themselves to emission reductions. In return,
they will get emission permits to trade among themselves
and with
outside parties.
The Commission
wants to impose mandatory emission allowances on a variety
of primary energy users, including the electricity
sector, which is only partly covered by the UK scheme.
Funding, mainly to the benefit of thermal solar technology,
will be
increased from euros 128m (DM250m) to euros
204m. A proposal by
economics minister Werner Müller
to instead cut support by euros 36m
had been incorporated
in a draft budget, triggering a row with Green
environment
minister Jürgen Trittin.
An environment ministry
spokesperson told Environment Daily today that
Mr
Müller had broken a previous agreement that all
revenues from the
government's ecotax on electricity
relating to generation from
renewable sources should
be recycled to the sector.
Mr Trittin's success
in persuading his ministerial colleagues that the
funding should be increased in line with strong growth
in electricity
generation from renewable sources
in Germany was the "success story" of
the budget, he added.
Although the text of the
budget has still to be agreed by parliament
on 30
November, a finance ministry spokesperson confirmed
to
Environment Daily that the level of funding for
the renewable energy
programme was no longer being
disputed.
Follow-up: German finance ministry press
statement
http://www.bundesfinanzministerium.de/Pressemitteilungen-.395.8400/Haushalt-2002-Konsolidieren-und-Gestalten.htm;
back to CNE news page
The challenge of
major changes in the Earth's climate has to be jointly
tackled by science, industry, non-governmental organisation
(NGOs), and the
general public. Most academic studies
on climate change have however been
performed with
little interaction with these social actors. There is
thus
urgent need to bring together the different
worlds of climate change
research, research and
development (R&D) activities carried out by industry
and assessments conducted by environmental NGOs.
The
European Climate Forum (ECF) has been established this
year to fill
this gap. ECF is a non-profit organisation
which brings to the same table
representatives of
different parties concerned with the climate problem.
The core of the ECF activities is to jointly define
and carry out
climate-change studies.
Leading
European research institutions in the field of climate
and energy
research and representatives of businesses
and NGOs involved in ECF have
jointly prepared a
position paper on climate change (see attachment). It
stresses the importance of a long-term view on global
mitigation options,
stresses the need to conduct
socially relevant research projects and
outlines
four important ECF joint projects to move forward on
this route
(appendices).
The attached position
paper is also available on the Internet at
http://www.European-Climate-Forum.net/.
Contact:
Dr. Martin Welp
Phone: +49-331-288 26 19
Mobile:
+49-171-427 88 81
Fax: +49-331-288 26 20
E-mail:
info@European-Climate-Forum.net
MOSCOW - Russia
plans to boost its nuclear power output with the construction
of 10 new reactors over the next decade, an Atomic Energy
Ministry official told the lower house of parliament
yesterday.
"Russia is making a structural
shift towards nuclear power," First Deputy Minister
Lev Ryabev said.
Russia is moving against the trend
in much of Western Europe where many governments are
planning to phase out nuclear power rather than boost
it.
Germany, Belgium and Sweden have opted to get rid of nuclear power stations, largely on environmental grounds.
But Ryabev said building nuclear reactors made most sense economically and in terms of the environment.
Nuclear plants do not produce carbon dioxide, the main greenhouse gas targeted by environmental campaigners, but opponents point to the risk of explosions like that at Chernobyl in Soviet Ukraine in 1986.
Nuclear energy will make up 37 percent of Russia's total energy output by 2020, he said, rising from the current levels of between 15-20 percent.
He told deputies electricity output at nuclear installations would grow by five percent a year, twice the growth rate of thermoelectric and hydropower plants.
Ryabev added Russia would also help build six reactors outside its borders in Iran, India and China.
Russia currently has 10 nuclear plants and 30 functioning reactors.
REUTERS
NEWS SERVICE
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news page
Under the EU's
burden sharing arrangement, Austria is committed to
a
13% cut in greenhouse gas emissions between 1990
and 2008-12 but is not
on track to achieve it. The
government approved a wide-ranging climate
strategy
last year, but admits to serious delays in implementation
In
a "Kyoto scenario" assuming introduction of
all measures specified
in the existing climate strategy,
Wifo forecasts creation of 20-25,000
more jobs by
2010 as well as a boost to economic growth of 1%. The
government would have to spend euros 436m (AS6bn), it
predicts, but
this would stimulate private investments
worth euros 1.9bn.
Under a more ambitious "sustainability"
strategy, Wifo forecasts a
boost to economic growth
above 1% and creation of 30-40,000 new jobs.
The
government would have to invest euros 654m, but this
would
stimulate private investment worth euros 2.76bn.
In addition,
government tax revenues would go up
by euros 1.45-2.18bn.
Follow-up: Wifo http://www.wifo.wsr.ac.at/,
tel: +43 1 798 26010;
. back
to CNE news page
At
the heart of the judgement is its conclusion that Austria's
energy
tax rules under which energy-intensive manufacturers
get automatic
rebates should have been vetted by
the European Commission. Austria
failed to submit
the rebate system for approval. Early indications
suggest that the Commission would be likely to reject
it as
anti-competitive.
Denmark and Finland
supported Austria in the case because they want to
have more leeway to offer energy tax discounts or rebates
to
broad-based industry sectors that might otherwise
suffer competitively.
Both have similar rebate systems
to Austria's, though both sought and
gained state
aid approval from the Commission before implementing
them.
A Finnish official told Environment Daily
that the ruling could act as
a disincentive to member
states that have not yet introduced an energy
tax.
"It's hard to see how [a member state] can be sure
of being able
to support manufacturers" and
simultaneously tax energy, he said.
The ruling
could also make countries that already have energy taxes
hesitant about raising taxation levels for fear that
the Commission
would reject accompanying proposed
exemptions for certain sectors, he
added. Unpredictable
outcomes and the time-consuming nature of the
exemptions
approvals process are also problems, he said.
Meanwhile,
the Austrian industry federation (VOI) is concerned
that
domestic fall-out from the judgement will hit
its members hard. If the
current rebate system is
rejected by the Commission, the Austrian
government
would probably gain approval only by retroactively offering
similar tax breaks to about 100 higher-energy consuming
service sector
companies, VOI's Gerhard Haas told
Environment Daily.
This would cut government revenue,
thus increasing the pressure for a
rise in the tax
rate or a reduction in the number of firms eligible
for
rebates, said Mr Haas. VOI supports the extension
of rebates to service
sector firms, but believes
that the government shouldn't make business
pay
for its own failure to gain EU approval for the rebates
system.
Follow-up:
judgement in case C-143/99
http://www.curia.eu.int/jurisp/cgi-bin/form.pl?lang=en&Submit=Submit&docrequire=alldocs&numaff=c-143/99;
LONDON - Nuclear power
group British Energy said yesterday it is interested
in the nuclear assets of Czech state-owned power producer
CEZ, which is up for privatisation.
"We
are interested in the CEZ nuclear plants," British
Energy's executive chairman Robin Jeffrey told a news
briefing in London after the release of interim results.
But he said the Czech government so far had reacted
negatively to British Energy's interest, which covers
the CEZ nuclear plants but not the other assets the
government wants to sell.
The Czech government is selling off CEZ in a package of generation, transmission and distribution assets.
CEZ owns the 2,000 megawatt Temelin nuclear power station and the 1,600 megawatt Dukovany nuclear plant.
Electricite de France (EdF) is widely viewed as the front runner in the tender.
"EdF is the head and shoulders front runner for CEZ," said Jeffrey.
Other shortlisted bidders are a tie-up of Italy's Enel and Spain's Iberdrola; and a group combining U.S.-based NRG Energy and Britain's International Power.
Belgium's Electrabel last month pulled out of the tender citing a lack of transparency in the sale process.
REUTERS NEWS SERVICE
WASHINGTON
- Carbon dioxide emissions spewed by the United States
and its territories jumped 3.1 percent last year, one
of the biggest annual increases in a decade, a government
report said last week.
Carbon dioxide emissions,
which accounts for more than 80 percent to total U.S.
greenhouse gas emissions, reached 1,583 million metric
tons of carbon equivalent, according to the Energy Department's
analytical arm.
The report comes as officials from
more than 160 countries met in Morocco to try to finalize
a global warming agreement to cut greenhouse gases that
are blamed for trapping heat in the atmosphere.
The Bush administration has said the United States, the world's biggest producer of greenhouse gases, will not take part in the accord, because it would hurt U.S. companies and the American economy.
The 3.1 percent growth last year in U.S. carbon dioxide emissions was the second highest annual increase during the 1990-2000 period, and was well above the average annual 1.6 percent growth rate for the period, said the department's Energy Information Administration. Only the 3.4 percent increase in emissions during 1996 was higher.
"The high growth in carbon dioxide emissions can be attributed to a return to more normal weather, decreased hydroelectric power generation that was replaced by fossil-fuel power generation, and strong economic growth," EIA said.
Carbon dioxide emissions from electric power plants were up 4.7 percent last year to 642 million metric tons, almost double the 1990-2000 average annual increase of 2.4 percent.
"Contributing to the relatively large increase in 2000 was a 4.2 percent increase in (fuel oil) use for electricity generation, as well as an 11 percent reduction in electricity generation from renewable fuels, including a 14 percent drop in hydroelectric generation," EIA said.
Total U.S. greenhouse gas emissions increased by 2.5 percent last year to 1,906 million metric tons, well above the 1.3 annual growth rate of the last decade, the agency said.
REUTERS NEWS SERVICE
Follow up:
An
electronic version of the report is available on EIA's
Web site at
ftp://ftp.eia.doe.gov/pub/oiaf/1605/cdrom/pdf/ggrpt/057300.pdf
Printed copies of the Executive Summary of the
report will be
available in November from the U.S.
Government Printing Office,
202/512-1800 or through
EIA's National Energy Information Center,
202/586-8800.
PRAGUE
- The Czech Republic's controversial Temelin nuclear
power plant shut down its first reactor yesterday after
a leak was discovered in a pump, the CTK news agency
reported.
CTK quoted the plant's spokesman,
Milan Nebesar, as saying the problem would force the
plant to go off line for about three weeks. Nebesar
was not immediately available to confirm the report.
He did not say whether there had been any radioactive
fluid associated with the leak.
One week ago Temelin boosted output in the reactor to 75 percent, its highest level ever, as it nears completion of its testing phase.
Temelin, 60 km (37 miles) from the border, has been plagued by Austrian objections. Vienna says that despite the introduction of western safety systems to the Communist-era design, the plant is unsafe and should be shut down.
The Czechs say the plant is safe.
The plant's owner CEZ has said it hopes to have the reactor in full operation by the end of the year, more than 18 months behind schedule.
Temelin was allowed last week to conduct final tests on the second block before nuclear fuel loading later this year. The second reactor is expected to be operational next year.
REUTERS NEWS SERVICE
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