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EU May Limit Steel, Cement Emission Credits, RWE Says (Update1)
2010-11-10 16:40:09.643 GMT
(Adds hydro-generation projects in third paragraph.)
By Mathew Carr
Nov. 10 (Bloomberg) -- The European Union may limit United
Nations credits on investments seen as "subsidizing" rivals in
the steel and cement industries, a trader at RWE AG said.
The EU, which runs the world's biggest cap-and-trade
program, has said it may stop validating UN Certified Emission
Reductions that are tied to industrial-gas projects. The bloc
may extend restrictions to steel and cement factories in
developing nations because they compete with EU companies, said
Bjorn Struck, senior emissions manager at the Geneva-based
trading unit of RWE, Germany's second-biggest utility.
"By buying Certified Emission Reductions, you are actually
subsidizing industry," Struck told the Climate Finance 2010
conference today in London. "I expect those will be next," he
said, referring to steel and cement. There may also be
additional limits on use of hydro-power credits, he said.
Proposed restrictions on UN credits linked to industrial
gases including hydrofluorocarbons probably wouldn't undermine
prices because the market is oversupplied, Struck said. That's
assuming the EU maintains its current target for a 20 percent
cut in greenhouse-gas emissions by 2020 on 1990 levels, he said.
"There will be enough Certified Emission Reductions
available for meeting the absorption capacity of the EU
emissions trading system," he said. "I don't think the
restrictions will affect the EU ETS a lot."
For Related News and Information:
Top Power Stories: PTOP <GO>
Emissions-trading stories: NI ENVMARKET BN <GO>
Today's top energy news: ETOP <GO>
European power-markets home page: EPWR <GO>
--Editors: Mike Anderson, Rob Verdonck.
To contact the reporter on this story:
Mathew Carr in London at +44-20-7073-3531 or
m.carr@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Stephen Voss on +44-20-7073-3520 or sev@bloomberg.net
