Britannia Radio

Unelected Greepeace seems to rule the world.  This lunatic horse-
trading is absurd.

The whole idea of a warming world  was rubbished in Booker's column 
last Sunday  and could be mightily reinforced if forecasts starting 
this weeekend for arctic conditions prove even remotely accurate.

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FINANCIAL TIMES   19.11.08
Poles offered break on carbon emissions
By Joshua Chaffin in Brussels

Power stations in eastern Europe could receive millions of euros of 
free carbon emission allowances to overcome opposition to a European 
Union climate pact.   [What about US in Britain?.  We have coal too 
and we should develope our mines to get it up and use it -cs]

The French proposal, a copy of which has been obtained by the 
Financial Times, is intended to address Poland's concerns about the 
expansion of Europe's emissions trading system, a central pillar of 
the EU's ambitious plan to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 20 per 
cent from 1990 levels by 2020.

Poland and other east European member states have strenuously 
objected to a measure in the original plan that called for 
electricity utilities to buy all of their emissions allowances at 
auction, beginning in 2013.

They argue that their coal-dependent utilities would be forced to 
pass on billions of euros in additional costs to consumers at a time 
when their economies are slowing.

The new proposal seeks to alleviate those concerns by giving a 
temporary exemption to countries that make 60 per cent or more of 
their electricity from solid fossil fuels. Their utilities would 
receive up to half their emissions allowances for free until 2016, 
according to the draft proposal.

Baltic states, which are poorly connected to the EU electricity grid, 
would also be eligible for the phase-in programme. Some European 
governments have indicated that the French proposal - one of the most 
substantive changes since the package was proposed by the European 
Commission in January - could set the grounds for a compromise.

Donald Tusk, the Polish prime minister, expressed optimism that the 
two sides were moving closer to a deal after meeting President 
Nicolas Sarkozy of France.

However, on Tuesday some others in the Polish government took a 
harder line on Tuesday. Mikolaj Dowgielewicz, Poland's minister for 
European affairs, said he was still holding out for a separate system 
in which utilities would receive allowances based on reasonable 
benchmarks for their various technologies.

"We don't want a gradual auctioning system because gradual auctioning 
would create a space for more windfall profits for energy companies," 
Mr Dowgielewicz said, echoing concerns of environmental groups such 
as Greenpeace, which fear that utilities will pass on the cost of 
free allowances to their customers.
"I would not bet my money on when and how we are going to reach an 
agreement," he added.

Europe has been racing to strike a deal at a December 11-12 summit of 
EU heads of state and government in order to build momentum for a 
global climate agreement at a meeting in Copenhagen next year. Any 
deal must be approved by all 27 national leaders and converted into 
law by the European parliament.

The proposal, made on Friday, included other concessions to the 
Poles, including mechanisms that would allow member states to 
intervene in the carbon market to rein in prices if they are deemed 
to have risen too high.

It would also force the European Commission to seek approval from 
member states to raise its goal for emissions reductions from 20 per 
cent to 30 per cent. The commission had previously proposed that the 
more ambitious goal would become automatic in the event that a 
broader international agreement on curbing greenhouse gases was 
achieved.
That decision could also appeal to Italy, which has also raised 
objections to the EU's climate change proposals in their present form.

Some commission officials and environmental groups have expressed 
concerns that free allowances would reduce incentives for companies 
to become more energy efficient.
"This proposal lets coal off the hook instead of promoting necessary 
investments in clean energy and energy efficiency," said Joris den 
Blanken, a climate specialist at Greenpeace.

However, one advocate of the proposal said that countries that 
received free allowances would have to invest an equivalent amount to 
upgrade their energy sectors and make them more efficient - a process 
that would be closely monitored. This person also stressed that any 
free allowances granted to utilities would count against their 
country's total allotment so that the weight of national burdens was 
unchanged.