Against the backdrop of international economic interdependencies a global carbon market is the prerequisite for effective global climate action. "We have to master the task of raising the effectiveness of emissions trading to a completetly new level", Federal Environment Minister Altmaier stressed at an international conference on the future of international emissions trading in Berlin.
The conference with 200 international participants representing governments, companies, NGOs and scientific institutes also included the Australian Minister for Climate Change, Greg Combet, his colleague from the United Kingdom, Edward Davey, the deputy Environment Minister from South Korea, Jeong Yeon-man and the Director General for Climate Action at the European Commission, Jos Debelke.
For two days the experts discussed political and practical requirements necessary to set up a global carbon market and how the different systems can be merged to form a homogeneous market - with a uniform price for all greenhouse gas emissions. "We must make the most of this opportunity. We need a political agenda which will make emissions trading an effective and longterm instrument for global climate action. At the same time we have to solve the teething problems of the European emissions trading scheme as quickly as possible and take action to stop the current decline in prices for emission allowances", Federal Environment Minister Altmaier pointed out.
At present emissions trading is gaining international interest despite the current crises of the European trading system. In addition to the trading systems in the EU, Australia and New Zealand there are regional initiatives in North America and Japan. In other countries and regions, e.g. in China and South Korea, a system is being set up or under discussion.
The European European emissions trading scheme, on the other hand, is currently under enourmous pressure. Since 2009 considerably more allowances than were needed were distributed to participants in the market. Due to the global economic crises prices for emission allowances have been declining over the past two years, reaching an all time low at the beginning of this year. According to estimates this surge of excess allowances corresponds to a complete annual CO2 emission volume of approximately two billion tonnes. As a consequence there is no incentive for companies to invest in measures or technologies which would lead to a marked reduction in climate-damaging greenhouse gas emissions. The proposal made by the European Commission to withdraw 900 million allowances from the market is therefore an important first step towards saving climate action in Europe.
Further information including the text of a manifesto in which Federal Environment Minister Altmaier and five other European Ministers of Energy and Environment advocate a reduction of emission allowances is available at www.bmub.bund.de .