MEPs back plans to cut carbon emission allowances and fund low-carbon innovation

Plans to boost greenhouse-gas emission curbs through the EU carbon market (EU ETS), so as to bring EU climate policy into line with the aims of the Paris agreement, were backed by Parliament on Wednesday. MEPs supported the Commission proposal to reduce the number of “carbon credits” (emission allowances) by 2.2% each year, and want to double the capacity of the 2019 market stability reserve (MSR) to absorb the excess of allowances on the market.

"I am very grateful to my colleagues for supporting this report. Today's vote marks a major step forward towards meeting our ambitious climate change targets” said rapporteur Ian Duncan (ECR, UK). “Parliament has voted through ambitious measures to fulfil our Paris Agreement obligations, and we have sent a strong signal to the European Council that we are serious about the fight to stop global warming", he continued.
MEPs approved the Commission proposal to increase the so-called “linear reduction factor” - the yearly reduction of credits in order to deliver on the carbon curbs - by 2.2% from 2021, as against 1.74% in the existing legislation. This factor should be kept under review with a view to increasing it to 2.4% by 2024 at the earliest, say MEPs.
MEPs also want to double the MSR’s capacity to mop up the excess of credits on the market. When triggered, it would absorb up to 24% of the excess of credits in each auctioning year, for the first four years. They agreed that 800 million allowances should be removed from the MSR as of 1 January 2021.
Read more: http://www.europarl.europa.eu/news/en/news-room/20170210IPR61806/meps-back-plans-to-cut-carbon-emission-allowances-and-fund-low-carbon-innovation