The European Commission has taken action to shore-up the EU’s Emission Trading System (ETS) by proposing to delay the auctioning of carbon allowances. Delaying allowances is needed to prevent further falls in the carbon price. The move must now be agreed by Member States and the European Parliament.

 “The European Commission has finally taken the first step towards boosting the carbon price in the short term. As a second step a permanent solution to the current and future oversupply of carbon allowances needs to be found to ensure a high and stable future price: the amount of allowances put on the market up until 2020 needs to be reduced by 2.6 billion”, said Rémi Gruet, Senior Regulatory Affairs Advisor for Environment and Climate Change at the European Wind Energy Association (EWEA).

“Today’s EU industry is changing and encompasses many new sectors that benefit from ambitious carbon pricing. The wind industry is one of the most dynamic and globally competitive, in 2010 contributing €32.4 billion to the EU’s GDP, €8.8bn in exports, and supporting 238,000 EU jobs. Increasing the carbon price will help both the climate and economic recovery”, Gruet said.