Post by account_disabled on Mar 7, 2024 6:01:34 GMT
Britain’s carbon-emitting businesses will pay more for energy than their European counterparts under the UK’s new carbon price floor, which goes into effect today.
The emissions tax, set by the UK government in 2011, starts at £16 ($24.30) per ton of carbon emitted this year and rises to £30 ($45.63) by 2020. Carbon prices in the rest of the European Union, however, have dropped to record lows, below €5 ($6.41) per ton. Last year EU allowances averaged €7.3 ($9.39) a ton.
In mid-March, the EU canceled an auction of carbon permits for the first time because bids failed to reach a secret reserve price.
The UK’s high carbon price floor represents a B2B Email List threat to competitiveness for British companies, particularly in energy-intensive sectors, says Richard Gledhill, partner PricewaterhouseCoopers sustainability and climate change.
Gledhill says Europe does need higher carbon prices to encourage a transition to a lower-carbon economy “but not just in the UK.”
If the EU doesn’t boost carbon prices, the UK’s significantly higher carbon price floor will cause “carbon leakage,” driving heavy energy users out of the country, Gledhill warns.
Later this month, the EU is slated to vote on a plan to boost the carbon price by a process called backloading, or delaying some permits, which analysts at Thomson Reuters Point Carbon say could provide some temporary stability and would raise carbon prices to around €6 ($7.71) a ton. But only structural reforms would permanently support prices, Point Carbon says.
Arkansas attorney general Dustin McDaniel plans to investigate the cause of the leak, CBS reported. He said the company may be liable for the consequences of the spill, under Arkansas’s Water and Air Pollution Act and other laws.
Southern California Edison has submitted a draft request to the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission, to fire up one unit at the San Onofre nuclear plant this spring. Edison plans to run the unit at 70 percent power for five months, then power it down and inspect it, the Los Angeles Times reports. The plant closed over a year ago because of excessive wear on tubes that carry radioactive water.
Emissions from factories and power plants subject to the EU Emissions Trading System fell for a second consecutive year in 2012, with a 1.4 percent drop, Reuters reported. The preliminary data shows the EU on track for its 2020 emissions reduction goal.
Collis Inc, a manufacturer of metal racks and shelving brackets for refrigerators, has agreed to pay a $31,379 administrative civil penalty to settle several Resource Conservation and Recovery Act violations in Clinton, Iowa, the EPA said. The company will also spend at least $91,809 to replace high-mercury fluorescent fixtures with low-mercury fixtures and bulbs, and complete a project to reduce the generation of hazardous solvent waste.
The emissions tax, set by the UK government in 2011, starts at £16 ($24.30) per ton of carbon emitted this year and rises to £30 ($45.63) by 2020. Carbon prices in the rest of the European Union, however, have dropped to record lows, below €5 ($6.41) per ton. Last year EU allowances averaged €7.3 ($9.39) a ton.
In mid-March, the EU canceled an auction of carbon permits for the first time because bids failed to reach a secret reserve price.
The UK’s high carbon price floor represents a B2B Email List threat to competitiveness for British companies, particularly in energy-intensive sectors, says Richard Gledhill, partner PricewaterhouseCoopers sustainability and climate change.
Gledhill says Europe does need higher carbon prices to encourage a transition to a lower-carbon economy “but not just in the UK.”
If the EU doesn’t boost carbon prices, the UK’s significantly higher carbon price floor will cause “carbon leakage,” driving heavy energy users out of the country, Gledhill warns.
Later this month, the EU is slated to vote on a plan to boost the carbon price by a process called backloading, or delaying some permits, which analysts at Thomson Reuters Point Carbon say could provide some temporary stability and would raise carbon prices to around €6 ($7.71) a ton. But only structural reforms would permanently support prices, Point Carbon says.
Arkansas attorney general Dustin McDaniel plans to investigate the cause of the leak, CBS reported. He said the company may be liable for the consequences of the spill, under Arkansas’s Water and Air Pollution Act and other laws.
Southern California Edison has submitted a draft request to the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission, to fire up one unit at the San Onofre nuclear plant this spring. Edison plans to run the unit at 70 percent power for five months, then power it down and inspect it, the Los Angeles Times reports. The plant closed over a year ago because of excessive wear on tubes that carry radioactive water.
Emissions from factories and power plants subject to the EU Emissions Trading System fell for a second consecutive year in 2012, with a 1.4 percent drop, Reuters reported. The preliminary data shows the EU on track for its 2020 emissions reduction goal.
Collis Inc, a manufacturer of metal racks and shelving brackets for refrigerators, has agreed to pay a $31,379 administrative civil penalty to settle several Resource Conservation and Recovery Act violations in Clinton, Iowa, the EPA said. The company will also spend at least $91,809 to replace high-mercury fluorescent fixtures with low-mercury fixtures and bulbs, and complete a project to reduce the generation of hazardous solvent waste.