The European Union (EU) has decided to reorganize the Carbon Emissions Trading System (ETS) to further reduce carbon emissions in the industrial sector. The EU is expected to expand the scope of application of ETS to land and sea transportation and building heating in the future.
The European Parliament announced in a press release on the 18th (local time) that an agreement had been reached between the Parliament, the Council and the Executive Committee to reorganize the ETS. ETS is a system that allows companies to auction off the right to emit greenhouse gases up to a certain level, and then sell the remaining emission rights if they emit less than this. It has the effect of inducing companies to reduce their own emissions or invest in technologies that reduce emissions by bearing the cost of excessive greenhouse gas emissions.
The EU has decided to significantly raise its carbon emission reduction target for 2030 through the ETS from 43% to 62% compared to 2005 emissions.
To this end, it decided to reduce 90 million tons of emission permits allocated to companies in 2024 and 27 million tons in 2026. It has raised the level of climate response by reducing the total amount of carbon emissions allowed to companies.
It was also decided to increase the scope of application of the system. ETS has so far been applied to about 10,000 companies, such as power plants and airlines, as well as industries that consume a lot of energy, such as steel and oil refining, but it is expected to expand to the maritime transportation field in the future. From around 2027, ETS will also be applied to carbon emissions from building maintenance or road transportation through a separate system called ‘ETS II’. However, since this can cause citizens to burden themselves with fuel costs, implementation of the system will likely be delayed until 2028 if energy prices continue to rise.
In order to protect industries where international competition is important, such as steel, chemicals, and cement, the ‘free quota system’, which allows emission rights to be allocated free of charge up to a certain level, will be phased out from 2026. This is because the EU has recently implemented the Carbon Border Adjustment System (CBAM), which imposes tariffs on products imported from countries with high carbon emissions, and the justification for the free quota system has disappeared. 스포츠토토
Due to the reorganization of the ETS, the price of carbon credits in the EU is expected to rise from the current 80 to 85 euros per ton to about 100 euros (equivalent to 140,000 won). This is the highest level in the world, and it is up to 7 times different from Korea, which is around 20,000 won per ton.
The reorganization plan agreed on that day also included the establishment of a “Social Climate Fund” to protect small businesses and the vulnerable, which could increase the burden of eco-friendly energy conversion. The reform plan is expected to be finalized through the consent of EU member states and a vote in the European Parliament in January or February next year.