Next week the Commission should publish a new legislative proposal on the EU Effort Sharing Decision (ESD) for 2021-2030. Today Sandbag reveals that a rebalancing of emission reduction effort around the EU under the ESD could incentivise an additional reduction of 2...
Category: Publications
Europe’s new climate proposal delivers less than business-as-usual emission cuts
Today, the European Commission has released a new proposal for cutting emissions in transport, agriculture and buildings sectors by 2030, and suggests how this effort should be shared between Member States. This proposal introduces a number of dangerous loopholes that...
Bend it, don’t Break it: How can we win the political debate for a higher 2030 ESD target?
This week the Commission should publish its new legislative proposal on the Effort Sharing Decision (ESD) – the policy driving emission reductions for the remaining approximately 60% of EU greenhouse gas emissions, not covered under the Emissions Trading System (ETS)....
Flexibilities now: How to get more for less from the EU Effort Sharing Decision?
DG CLIMA, European Commission’s (EC) service for climate change mitigation, will publish the proposal of changes to the EU Effort Sharing Decision (ESD) around 20 July. We expect that the proposal has now entered into the ‘interservice consultation’ where it is...
Stabilising the Market Stability Reserve
Sandbag publishes a new briefing on Stabilising the Market Stability Reserve Sandbag has published analysis of the impact of Phase 4 EU ETS reforms on the Market Stability Reserve (MSR) to accompany its latest briefing - 'Aligning the surplus with reality'. Sandbag's...
ENVI and ITRE are rearranging the deckchairs on the Titanic with their ETS revision
The Emissions Trading System reform is in Committee Stage, and a dark comedy has begun. Many of the measures proposed in the Environment (ENVI) committee draft (by Ian Duncan MEP) ironically act against the environment, condemning the EU to an inadequate response to...
The Effort Sharing Dinosaur: Avoiding extinction for the EU’s climate ambition
Today, Thursday 26 May Sandbag has released a new report on the cumulative surplus of Annual Emission Allocations (AEAs) under the Effort Sharing Decision (ESD) – the EU’s bigger, but less well-known climate instrument, alongside the EU Emissions Trading System (ETS)....
Is it worth it? Federley’s proposal on the Innovation Fund
Update 04/05/16 following full publication of Mr Federley’s proposal The 150 million ETS allowances proposed to be used to top up the Innovation Fund are not destined to be removed the Market Stability Reserve (MSR), as reported in the media (see below). Apologies for...
EU must walk the talk on climate ambition and Paris
Tomorrow the European Union, alongside over 150 states, will sign the Paris agreement at a ceremony in New York. But can we really live up to the promise of keeping the world below 1.5 degrees warming with the current low level of ambition in the European 2030 climate...
Cut the flab: Cement sector’s free lunch is costing other companies
Sandbag’s recent report on the cement sector highlighted several key flaws in Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) rules around free allocation of allowances. These rules give rise to perverse incentives to pollute: we estimate the ETS has increased cement sector emissions,...