Carbon welfare - How big polluters plan to profit from EU emissions trading reform

The same greenhouse gases would then enter the atmos- Emissions trading as a subsidy phere shortly afterwards from vehicles, which fall outside scheme for polluters of the scope of the ETS – a temporary stopgap that could even hold back the spread of electric vehicles, and broader The EU Emissions Trading System is as much a source of transformations in the transport sector.14 corporate subsidies. [...] When the European Council ap- The main fruits of this fresh round of lobbying can be seen in proved the package in late October 2014, the weak 30 per cent the Winter Package, which opens the door to the extension energy efficiency target proposed by the Commission was of fossil fuel subsidies while putting the brakes on support reduced even further to a 27 per cent improvement by 2030. [...] As one MEP has explained, the threat of job losses has FuelsEurope, the trade association of multinational oil and worked wonders in the European Parliament, where the gas companies operating refineries in the EU, has been at local steel industry has approached individual MEPs who the centre of the industry’s Brussels lobbying on the details have a steel factory in their constituency.147 Even MEPs. [...] 60 Amendment 25 “Draft Report on the proposal for a directive of the 42 The request asked for a list of meetings (excluding the Commissioner, European Parliament and of the Council amending Directive 2003/87/ his Cabinet and the Director-General) and interest representatives EC to enhance cost-effective emission reductions and low-carbon invest- since 1st December 2014, www.asktheeu.org/en/request. [...] the_current_and_future_eu-ets_carbon_price_on_investment_deci- sions_by_companies.pdf 85 “Voting recommendations on the amendments tabled to the EU ETS draft reform proposal in the Committee on Industry, Research and 103 “ITRE Opinion on the proposal for a directive of the European Energy (ITRE) - A EURELECTRIC response paper”, Eurelectric, Brussels, Parliament and of the Council amending Directiv.