Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/468421
maltatoday, WEDNESDAY, 25 FEBRUARY 2015 8 JAMES DEBONO MALTA and eight other EU states, including the UK, Germany and France, have signed a letter calling on the European Union to deliver urgent reforms to the EU emissions trading scheme (ETS), in a bid to bring an end to the long-standing oversupply of emissions allowances in the market. The joint ministerial letter signed by Energy and Climate Change Ministers from the UK, Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden, Denmark, Slovenia, Luxembourg, Malta, and Norway calls for the introduction of a new Market Stability Reserve in 2017 and not in 2021 as proposed by the EU commission. Emissions trading is a market- based approach to controlling pollu- tion. By creating tradeable pollution permits it attempts to add the profit motive as an incentive for good per- formance, unlike traditional envi- ronmental regulation based solely on the threat of penalties. One of the problems with the current system is free handouts of permits to the biggest polluters and the purchase of "offsets" – carbon credits bought from outside the cap-and-trade system from carbon reduction projects in the developing world. The new Market Stability Re- serve mechanism will address some of these problems. "While the ETS is clearly a very cost effective tool to decrease emis- sions of greenhouse gases some critical issues have to be urgently addressed," Environment Minister Leo Brincat told MaltaToday. According to Brincat the EU's ETS market is not sufficiently flexible to help it adjust to demand. Brincat also called for a stronger market sta- bility reserve which can ensure that the ETS delivers the low carbon in- vestment at least cost. At the October 2014 EU summit, EU leaders reached an agreement on the 2030 climate and energy package. They explicitly endorsed a Commission proposal relating to the «Market Stability Reserve» (MSR) but also agreed that extra free car- bon allowances will continue to be granted after 2020 to those indus- tries at risk of carbon leakage. The current debate between EU decision-makers focuses on the date for the entry into force of the re- serve. The UK, France and Germany all want the mechanism to start in 2017, but Poland is leading the op- position to an early implementation and no qualified majority prevails. The letter signed by Malta and the other countries welcomes the European Commission's recent pro- posals to introduce a new Market Stability Reserve (MSR) that would control the number of allowances in the market, but argues that the bloc cannot wait until 2021to launch the new mechanism, as currently pro- posed. "By that time, the level of surplus in the EU ETS is likely to be signifi- cantly higher according to market analysts, with the resulting risk that critical low carbon investments needed this decade, are further postponed into the future, increas- ing decarbonisation costs and fur- ther undermining confidence in the system," the open letter states. "We therefore call for the MSR to start in 2017." The letter also voices opposition to the current plan to return 800 million carbon allowances to the market before 2020, arguing that such an approach would result in "substantial market turbulence", which would further undermine "investor and wider confidence in the EU ETS". "These allowances must either be put into the reserve or otherwise ad- dressed to avoid damaging the cred- ibility and stability of the EU ETS," the letter states. The letter effectively underlines long-standing opposition to the bloc's current ETS reform proposals that has been led by UK Energy and Climate Change Secretary Ed Davey and his counterparts in Germany and Denmark. However, a number of member states, predominantly from East- ern Europe, are reluctant to rush through the proposed reforms and cancel before 2020 the planned re- turn of allowances to the market. They fear that the reforms proposed by the group of nine states would push up carbon prices and under- mine the competitiveness of their heavy industry. The latest letter attempts to ad- dress these concerns, setting out proposals for addressing the risk of "carbon leakage", whereby compa- nies relocate overseas in pursuit of lower carbon costs. The letter argues the current measures for tackling the risk of carbon leakage through to 2020 by exempting some industries from carbon costs are sufficient. But it adds that the European Commission should accelerate efforts to explain how carbon intensive industries will be supported. The latest proposals are likely to be welcomed by a host of green businesses, including many blue chip firms, which have consistently called for reforms to the ETS to be fast-tracked. However, they are equally likely to face opposition from some indus- trial groups, which have countered that any changes to the scheme should be delayed until after 2020. News Malta calls for reforms of emissions trading scheme Coastal development pressures 'major threat to Mediterranean coast' COASTAL development pres- sures are seen as the major threat to Mediterranean coast- al zones, according to a survey conducted by the EU-funded Mare Nostrum Project among 43 environmental organisa- tions in 11 countries. Of the NGOs participating in the survey, 93% cited develop- ment pressures as the main risk to their own country's coast. This was followed by overfish- ing (84%), tourism pressures (81%), increased litter (81%), chemical pollution (65%) and coastal erosion (63%). "The ground-breaking survey wishes to identif y what envi- ronmental organisations see as the major threats to Medi- terranean coastal zones," said Mare Nostrum project initiator and coordinator Prof. Rachelle Alterman from the Technion Israel Institute of Technology. "Clearly, uncontrolled devel- opment is a serious problem across the entire Mediterra- nean Basin." The survey, carried out by Mare Nostrum partner The Societ y for the Protection of Nature in Israel (SPNI), is the first-ever organised effort to identif y the main challenges and needs of civil societ y or- ganisations with regard to the protection of the Mediterrane- an coast. Results were received from 43 organisations in Spain, France, Italy, Israel, Malta, Greece, Croatia, Albania, Cy- prus, Slovenia and Monaco. The survey was conducted as part of the Mare Nostrum Network Initiative, intended to serve as a support platform for civil societ y organisations involved in ICZM (Integrated Coastal Zone Management) and conservation throughout the Mediterranean coast. "The results show that most organisations wish to join the Mare Nostrum Network and engage in collaborative ac- tions," said Andrea Monge, Mare Nostrum Network coor- dinator at SPNI. "These organisations stressed the importance of going be- yond information sharing and working on capacit y building, particularly with regard to communit y involvement, com- munications and fundraising." Mare Nostrum focuses on understanding the "implemen- tation gap" between the ideals of the international Barcelona Convention and its Protocol on Integrated Coastline Zone Management (ICZM) and real- ities on the ground. It is one of the 95 projects funded by 2007- 2013 ENPI CBC Mediterranean Sea Basin Programme. The project is of three years' duration and has a total budget of €4.3 million, of which 90% is financed by the programme.