CO2.1
Beyond the EU’s Emissions Trading System
By David Merlin-Jones. Civitas. 176 pages. £12.50
ISBN 978 1 906 837 341
The EU emissions trading system (ETS) is Europe’s attempt to reduce carbon emissions through the market. In this piece of campaign literature, Civitas presses for its termination.
The ETS was launched in 2005. The intention was to lower carbon emissions from power stations and heavy industry. Permits to pollute would have to be bought on an open market. Year by year, Brussels would restrict the number of permits available so that investing in coal or gas would become more expensive than investing in wind or solar.
As Merlin-Jones explains in the first half of his report, the ETS has failed horribly. Neutered by vested interests, it has done nothing to reduce emissions, while becoming a vehicle for fraud and profiteering. And the increased energy prices hit wallets and exports. He advises killing off the ETS in favour of a flat carbon tax.
Yet the ETS mess is one small part of a big power struggle. There is no safe, secure, plentiful, green and cheap energy supply; something has to give. So consumer groups, green activists and industry lobbyists are engaged in a long tug-of-war to slant public policy.
This policy wonk wades into that debate. He hopes that, with some investment, by about 2030 we will have developed a new generation of renewables that are not only green but cheap. That hope is the fig-leaf that allows us to go on polluting now. This version of ‘jam today, jam tomorrow’ is an excuse to remain worshippers in the Temple of Consumption.
This Civitas report is good on the ETS, poor on energy policy. On the latter I’d recommend David MacKay’s Sustainable energy for its hard-headed look at our choices on power, and Tim Jackson’s Prosperity without growth for his insights into growth and consumption. Both should be in your public library.
