Der Task Force-Bericht des Centre for European Policy Studies (CEPS) untersucht insbesondere Elemente der zweiten Phase des EU-Emissionshandelssystems, da die Mitgliedstaaten zurzeit ihre nationalen Allokationspläne (NAP) vorbereiten, welche bis zum 30. Juni eingereicht werden müßen.
Part I of the CEPS Task Force Report on ‚Reviewing the EU Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS)‘ was presented to the UK Presidency on 7 July 2005. This follow-up report (Part II) investigates the economic impact of the scheme, its effects on investments and on the potential inclusion of aviation for the second trading period (2008-2012).
The report comes as EU states struggle to reduce their CO2 emissions and in the wider context of negotiations on an international climate change strategy after 2012 and the expiry of emissions reduction targets under the Kyoto Protocol.
The report makes fourteen recommendations in order to optimise the EU-ETS current implementation. The recommendations focus on:
- completing the trading infrastructure;
- cost-effectiveness issues;
- options to create investment incentives;
- competitiveness of the industry in the absence of similar schemes outside the EU and
- the inclusion of aviation in the ETS.
On the competitiveness aspect, the report urges the European Commission „to take into account the economic impacts of the different sectors covered, i.e. the power sector or industrial sectors.“ To do so, it identifies two categories of policy alternatives:
- alleviation measures, which would aim at „changing the incentive structure and the functioning of the allowance market essentially through regulation,“ and
- compensation measures to „correct undesirable economic and social outcomes from the trading market“ (mainly through recycling of revenues or allocation of subsidies).
As far as the extension of the scheme to other sectors is concerned, the report suggests the inclusion of aviation, and this despite the numerous questions this raises regarding non-CO2 impacts, common metrics and allocation issues.