Here are some of the initial reactions:
Renewable Energy Focus
Stop press: Critics slam EU failure to "fix" carbon market
...The news has been greeted with dismay by many in the clean energy industry, and some reports have even suggested that 10 years of investment could be brought to a halt. Rémi Gruet, Senior Climate Advisor of the European Wind Energy Association (EWEA) said that MEPs had effetively voted against the polluter pays principle and putting a market-oriented price on carbon emissions:New York Times
"This makes the ETS irrelevant in Europe's bid to reduce the use of fossil fuels. The carbon price will continue having no impact on investment decisions in the power sector" he said....
Europe Rejects Bid to Raise Cost of Carbon Emissions
...The European Emissions Trading System, or E.T.S., has been losing credibility even as other countries like China consider adopting similar measures to help bring down greenhouse gas emissions, which scientists have linked to global warming. But in the 334-to-315 vote, members of the European Parliament seemed to focus less on the global implications than on not wanting to add further to energy costs in Europe. Natural gas prices in Europe are roughly three times those in the United States, which is benefiting from the shale gas boom.“This is a crisis in European leadership on the climate issue,” said Anthony Hobley, head of the climate change practice at Norton Rose, a law firm in London. “We have reached the stage where the E.U. E.T.S. has ceased to be an effective environmental tool.”After the vote, the price of a carbon allowance, which allows a factory to emit one ton of carbon, fell sharply to just above 3 euros per ton from about 4.50 euros per ton an hour earlier....MORE
... "We believe that backloading is now politically dead and it is very unlikely that any political intervention in the scheme will be agreed during the third phase (2013-2020)," said Stig Schjølset, Head of EU Carbon Analysis at Thomson Reuters Point Carbon. "We do not envisage prices rising much above the current €3 mark and they may well drop lower at least until the end of the third phase."...
The European Union's flagship program to fight global warming suffered a major blow Tuesday when lawmakers rejected a proposal aimed at shoring up the region's carbon-emissions trading system, putting its survival in doubt.Circling back around to Alphaville:
After the European Parliament's surprise afternoon vote, spooked investors drove the price of emissions permits down by nearly half. Benchmark electricity prices also fell....
....But lately, politicians' focus on generating jobs and sparking growth in a region struggling to recover from recession is relegating green concerns to second place behind economics."It was a vote of reason," said Poland's environment minister, Marcin Korolec. Poland, one of the EU's less-affluent members, has been outspoken in its opposition to the measure, which it said could hamper development.
The parliament's Environment Committee after the vote said that some lawmakers felt that "a rise in the carbon price would erode the competitiveness of European industry and be passed on in household energy bills."Germany's Minister of Economic and Technology Philipp Rösler welcomed the rejection of the backloading plans as an "excellent signal" for an continuing economic recovery. "Reducing supply CO2 allowances would equate to an intervention into a functioning market system," and further burden industry, he said....
EU carbon allowances as the new Bitcoin
Big news for the European Union Allowances market.
From the FT’s Pilita Clark and Joshua Chaffin:
The European Parliament has voted against propping up the EU’s emissions trading scheme in a move that sent prices plunging to new lows in the world’s biggest carbon market. In what some analysts fear will be a significant setback for global efforts to tackle climate change by putting a price on carbon emissions, members of parliament voted 334-315 on Tuesday against a measure known as “backloading”. This would have temporarily removed some 900m allowances from the over-supplied emissions trading system.......This is the short-term move:
...MUCH MORE
Finally, when you are doing the political capitalism thing, ya gotta listen to
the first winner (April 2007 vintage) of the Climateer Investing 'Our
Hero' award:
The 26th Secretary of War, the Democrat and Republican (!) Senator from Pennsylvania, Simon Cameron:
The 26th Secretary of War, the Democrat and Republican (!) Senator from Pennsylvania, Simon Cameron:
Our Hero
"The honest politician is one who
when he is bought, will stay bought."
