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Ministers have written off 36 million tonnes of unused greenhouse gas emissions rights, it emerged on Tuesday.
The UK underspent its 2008-2012 carbon budget by more than a year’s worth of emissions from Drax and Eggborough, the two largest coal power stations in the country. This was helped by reduced energy demand in the wake of the recession.
On the advice of the Climate Change Committee, government has allowed the spare emissions rights to expire rather than bank them for future use.
Sandbag, a campaign group for effective carbon markets, welcomed the decision and urged European policymakers to do the same across the Continent.
The latest data from the European Environment Agency shows the EU has nearly met its 2020 carbon reduction target already. Emissions in 2012 were down 19.2 per cent on 1990 levels.
The EU emissions trading scheme (ETS) is so oversupplied Europe could reverse decades of environmental progress and still meet its carbon budget, Sandbag warned.
Europe has agreed “backloading” measures to prop up the chronically low carbon price under the ETS and negotiations are under way for a longer term fix. Sandbag is calling for spare allowances to be cancelled.
Damien Morris, head of policy at Sandbag, said: “The government should be congratulated for cancelling spare emissions resulting from the recession. This sets an important precedent, which the UK should use to leverage more ambition from both European and international partners as we negotiate towards a new climate agreement in Paris in 2015.”
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