German VDEW rejects mandatory emissions trading
Date: 26-Oct-01
Country: GERMANY
"The effectiveness of agreed voluntary measures, which Germany industry has been implementing successfully for years could be severely hampered by trading in emissions rights," VDEW said in a press release.
The EU Commission on Tuesday agreed on emissions trading proposals from 2005 and on new curbs on air pollution as a contribution to international moves to combat global warming.
It also said it wanted the 15 EU states to ratify the so-called Kyoto protocol on curbing greenhouse gases - which scientists say are raising temperatures - which were agreed by more than 180 states in July.
The EU wants to reduce its combined carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions for the period between 1990 and 2012 by eight percent.
VDEW said as a signatory to Kyoto, Germany had pledged to take on three quarters of the necessary CO2 emissions reduction for the whole of the EU through voluntary measures.
These had been successful - Germany had cut annual CO2 emissions by 22 million tonnes between 1990 and 2000, it said.
VDEW added Germany was also leading in other emissions-reducing activities that the EU was calling for - including more efficient electrical appliances and a focus on environmentally friendly combined heat and power production.
Being forced to trade emissions certificates as well would put unacceptable additional burdens on power firms, it said.
German industry objects to the planned Commission system of handing out to, and collecting back pollution permits from, EU industries from 2005, which aims to force companies to lower emissions, buy additional rights, or be fined.
One reason is that this would punish those companies that already now invest in efforts to lower emissions, another that Germany's energy-intensive industries already pay a national eco-tax on fuel use, which leads to reduced CO2 intake.