European Union

Since the Kyoto ETS went into effect, traded emissions have risen

From 2005 through 2007, emissions from within facilities covered by the Kyoto Emissions Trading Scheme have risen by around 1.8 percent. (If we adjust for facilities entering and leaving the system, which I'm not sure we should, that total would be more like 1.6 percent.)

This rise in emissions happened in spite of the fact the E.U. emissions as whole have fallen. This is not a secret, exactly, but when people talk about instituting cap-and-trade in the U.S. it is worth remembering this is not a case of taking something that worked, just not as well as we like, and making it better. Phase I of European cap-and-trade was a failure.

E.U. to launch environment project ‘auction’

BRUSSELS — The European Union will offer almost 100 environmental projects from developing countries around the world in an auction to try to attract donors to back them, the European Commission said Tuesday. The “Auction Floor,” to be held in Brussels on March 13, will allow developing projects to meet potential donors such as local […]

E.U. leaks details of its proposed Kyoto successor treaty

On Wednesday, the European Commission will release a communiqué outlining the E.U.'s vision for a successor agreement to Kyoto, to be hashed out this December in Copenhagen.

There have been some leaks related to the document, covered in The NYT and elsewhere, but now EurActiv has gotten a draft copy [PDF] to look over. It's got pencil marks on it, so obviously it's preliminary and could change by Wed., but it gives a good sense of the direction E.U. sees things going.

U.N. says ignore the cold, warming is still a problem

GENEVA — Icy conditions that have claimed dozens of lives across Europe since November are partly due to La Nina, an upsurge of cooler water to the Pacific Ocean surface, the UN’s weather agency said Friday. “The cold snap currently being experienced can be partly attributed to the La Nina phenomenon, which is a cooling […]

Europe, pioneering ways to fubar a carbon trading system

For the first years of the European Union’s cap-and-trade program (the EU ETS, for acronym lovers), permits were given away to polluters for free. Not only were they given away, but they were wildly overallocated based on inflated baseline numbers, meaning that the early years of the program produced far less in the way of […]

Population growth and climate: The E.U.-15 vs. the U.S.

The relative population trends of the E.U.-15 and the United States seem to be a source of some confusion, if comments to my recent post on the European Union’s effort to meet its Kyoto targets are any indication. One commenter writes “EU population is flat/declining. US population is growing.” Even our friend Roger Pielke, Jr. […]

Four member states and E.U.-15 on track to meet Kyoto goals

On Saturday, I reported that 15 E.U. countries were on track to meet Kyoto targets, but some readers — including Roger Pielke, Jr. (!) — were skeptical. Now the European Environment Agency has released a lot of the underlying data, “Greenhouse gas emission trends and projections in Europe 2008.” Figure ES-1 (click to enlarge) tells […]

European Union sticks by GHG plan, United Kingdom goes for 80 percent cut

Eastern Europeans and others seeking to use the current financial meltdown as an excuse to roll back climate commitment have failed (for now). The BBC reports: European Union leaders agreed to stick to their plan to cut greenhouse gases — despite a surprise demand by Poland and six other member states to drop them to […]

E.U. will no longer export mercury

Hold on to your thermometers: The European Union will ban exports of mercury as of March 2011. The 27-nation bloc stopped mining mercury in 2001, but its exports of the metal account for up to a quarter of global supply. The export ban will require mercury that’s no longer of service to be put into […]