European Solar Thermal Industry Federation

Workshop on Extending a Carbon Price Signal to the Heating Sector

Date: 25 Mar 2016
Category: Solar Heat News

On the 17th March, ESTIF participated to a workshop organized by EuroHeat & Power on ‘Extending a carbon price signal to the heating sector’. The workshop saw the presentation of the GreenStream study ‘Inclusion of the heating sector in the EU ETS’, commissioned by the Finnish Energy Industries, followed by a reaction of Commission representatives, including Director Marie Donnelly.

The study (accessible here) states that the argument for expanding the EU ETS is to improve the cost efficiency of reducing emissions. It identifies 3 main challenges and barriers that such a policy shift in the ETS sector would imply, namely :

·        The EU ETS would overlap with existing policy instruments regulating the non-ETS heating emissions.

·        Removing or lowering excise duties may threaten government revenue

·        The high costs for monitoring, reporting and verification (MRV) of the emissions of a large amount of small emission sources as well as the increase of the administrative burden of regulators

The study concludes that the inclusion of the heating sector in the EU ETS would have a little effect on emissions in the short term. However, in the long-term inclusion in the EU ETS may unlock the unrealized potential in the non-ETS heating sector.

DG ENER Director Donnelly welcomed the study, and recognized the huge challenge of fully including the heating sector in the ETS system, and argued that immediate priority should be given instead in the phasing out of fossil fuels subsidies, as more feasible, direct way of reaching a level-playing field in the sector.

To access the presentation, click here

 

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