The current objectives and mechanisms on the part of the European Union regarding climate and energy policy apply largely to the year 2020. From the perspective of energy-intensive industries, it is particularly problematic that the protective mechanisms under the Emissions Trading Directive to safeguard international competitiveness will be discontinued after 2020. It is against this backdrop that the reform of the current legal foundations and their configuration for the period between 2020 and 2030 is being discussed. Should no appropriate measures for energy-intensive industries be defined for the period after 2020, the European steel association EUROFER believes that the steel industry in the EU will be facing costs of more than EUR 85.0 billion by 2030.
The Council of the European Union has recognized this threat and instructed the Council leadership and the EU Commission on March 21, 2014 to recommend measures for the prevention of carbon leakage (migration of production due to climate policy) by October 2014 in order to make long-term, reliable planning for industrial capital investments possible.
From the European steel industry’s perspective, these measures should—in any case—include completely cost-free allocation of emission certificates to those companies, which are industry leaders in the environmental sector, determined on the basis of benchmarks that are achievable both economically and technically and on the basis of actual production quantities, without any deductions or correction factors. They should also contain a complete offset of any factors resulting from climate policy by way of the price of electricity. The application of these measures should be standardized throughout the EU and be binding in all of the member states.
In early July 2014, the European Commission presented a political and legal initiative regarding recycling management. The so-called “recycling management package” consists of communications regarding recycling management (“On the path to a recycling economy: A zero waste program for Europe”), “Green jobs,” “Recycling in the construction industry,” and a legislative proposal for the amendment of six waste management guidelines.
The Commission has thus defined the establishment of a recycling economy as the objective of European resource efficiency policy. It demonstrates how new growth and job opportunities result from a more efficient use of resources. The basics of improved efficiency are innovative design, products with greater capabilities and a longer life cycle, improved production processes, future-oriented business models, and technical progress enable waste products to become resources.
The communications regarding recycling management represent declarations of intent by the European Commission and will be discussed in the next months at the Commission level. voestalpine will monitor these steps within the scope of its activities in professional associations.