Energy and climate policy 2030 in the European Union
It currently appears that the European Union wants to retain its quantitative “2030 objectives,” after which point in time it plans to introduce mechanisms to continue to increase the CO2 price. This would result in yet another massive disadvantage of the energy-intensive manufacturing industries not only vis-à-vis the energy sector but especially vis-à-vis overseas competitors. The next step in the spring of 2015 will be the vote on the proposal for a “market stability reserve for emissions trading,” which will provide the first indications about the further development and which will in all likelihood result in a revision of the Emissions Trading Directive. Concurrently, discussions will continue at the European level regarding how emissions trading will be organized in the long term, including the basic technological criteria.
Global level
After the Lima Climate Change Conference in December 2014, the UN Climate Change Conference will meet in Paris in late 2015 to decide on a follow-up agreement to the Kyoto Protocol that will expire in 2020. As a preliminary step, there are plans to define national reduction commitments in the coming months. The scope and, in particular, the degree of comparability and transparency of the reduction of greenhouse gases in the individual nations and regions will be a major indicator for the seriousness of global climate protection efforts.
In particular the ambitions of those nations, which have not ratified the Kyoto Protocol thus far (e.g., USA), and of the emerging economies, which have joined the treaty but have nevertheless increased their emissions, notably China and India, are of crucial importance for the industry in the European Union.
From the vantage point of the voestalpine Group, which operates globally, preference should be given to a climate protection agreement based on uniform principles that is mandatory worldwide as opposed to varying regional solutions.