After
having embraced carbon trading to fight climate change, the European Commission
is now eyeing an EU-wide trading scheme for sulphur dioxide (SO2) and nitrogen
oxides (NOx) to improve air quality.
A draft study assessing the
environmental and economic impacts of such a system was recently made public.
SO2 and NOx are atmospheric
pollutants that cause acid rain, smog and related respiratory health problems. They
are typically byproducts of fossil fuelcombustion in the chemical and
power sectors.
But EU employers' association
BusinessEurope has warned that anan EU-wide trading scheme "cannot
be the way forward" as these pollutants are already dealt with under
existing EU directives.
"An EU-wide trading scheme
would bring double regulation and unnecessary costs," the association
warned in a letter to the European Commission.
The
report
, compiled over
the past 12 months by Entec UK Limited, an environmental and engineering
consultancy, concludes that "most trading scenarios" would be less
costly than a planned industrial emissions directive (IED), which was used as
the reference scenario for the study.
"This is because under
trading, there is access to a wider range of cost-effective abatement options
across member states and installations within the trading zone," the study
notes.
Such a system would also be cheaper
than the current Integrated Pollution Prevention and Control (IPPC) Directive,
the Commission observes.
Follow-up study
SO2 and NOx emission trading
schemes could potentially replace the proposed IED for the pollutants concerned
in certain sectors, according to the Commission. The scheme could also replace
the individualpermitting system based on Best Available Techniques (BATs)
laid down inthe 1996 IPPC Directive, which is currently under review.
The study assessed various design
options for potential NOx and SO2 cap-and-trade systems, considering a number
of different aspects such as the cap level, the number of trading zones, the
allocation method and the cost-effectiveness of each of the scenarios.
While areport assessingthe possible development of EU-wide
NOx and SO2 trading schemes for IPPC installations is currently being
finalised, the EU executive has already launched another
study
to evaluate the economics of such
schemes.
The study should be finalised by
early 2011.
(from
EurActiv)