WWF blasts windfalls for EU coal-burners

BRUSSELS, BELGIUM - EU plans for curbing emissions will hand utilities windfall profits of up to 71 billion euros ($111.5 billion) between 2008 and 2012 even as they burn highly polluting coal, environmental group WWF said.

Power companies in five European Union countries - Britain, Germany, Spain, Italy and Poland, which are among the biggest coal burners - stand to earn windfalls totaling between 23 and 71 billion euros during the second phase of the bloc's Emissions Trading Scheme, WWF said.

WWF said it was vital, in the subsequent phase of the ETS starting in 2013, that the EU stick to plans to sell emission permits, rather than continue to give them out free, eliminating such profits.

"We are shocked that we still have power generators claiming they are cleaning up their act but are still building nonsensical, coal-fired plants," said Sanjeev Kumar, the WWF's ETS coordinator.

"Cheap profits for doing nothing is scandalous," Kumar said. "The question now is how are these windfall profits going to be used? Are they going to give them straight to shareholders or are they going to invest them in carbon capture and storage or renewable technologies?"

About one fifth of the EU's greenhouse gas emissions comes from burning coal to generate electricity and that proportion is set to rise as new coal-fired power stations are built, WWF said in a report.

Under the ETS - the cornerstone of the EU's plans to fight climate change - European governments currently give allowances to many companies that emit greenhouse gases.

Auctioning is set to become more common for power firms in some EU countries in 2008-2012, Kumar said.

The EU's executive Commission has proposed that from 2013, all permits for the power sector should be auctioned, meaning no more windfall profits for the industry.

But Brussels is under pressure from some EU states not to penalize European industry from 2013 if other countries around the world do not sign up to comparable emissions curbs.

The WWF commissioned Point Carbon, a provider of information and analysis on carbon markets, to draw up its report.

The range for windfall profits was based on allowances priced at between 21 and 32 euros per tonne of carbon dioxide and a range of other assumptions, the report said.

Related News

alaska nuclear plant

US looks to decommission Alaskan military reactor

WASHINGTON - The US Army Corps of Engineers has begun decommissioning Alaska’s only nuclear power plant, SM-1A, which is located at Fort Greely. The $17m plant closed in 1972 after ten years of sporadic operation. It was out of commission from 1967 to 1969 for extensive repairs. Much of has already been dismantled and sent for disposal, and the rest, which is encased in concrete, is now to be removed.

The plant was built as part of an experimental programme to determine whether nuclear facilities could be built and operated at remote sites more cheaply than diesel-fuelled plants.

"The main approach was…

READ MORE

BLM Announces Completion of Crimson Energy Storage Project

READ MORE

Are major changes coming to your electric bill?

READ MORE

EPA Policy to limit telework emerges during pandemic

READ MORE

This kite could harness more of the world's wind energy

READ MORE