Bringing End-use Energy Efficiency to the European Emissions Trading Scheme - Outlook for the Third Trading Period

The European Emissions Trading Scheme (EU ETS), a cornerstone of the EU climate change policy, has entered its second trading period (2008-2012). The present design of the ETS has limited impact on certain types of end-use energy efficiency measures. Although promotion of energy efficiency is not the objective of the EU ETS, its extension to less energy intensive sectors, and the inclusion of fuel use in sectors not covered by the EU ETS at present, could foster energy savings. The paper looks at those features of the current EU ETS that may have unintended or limited effects on additional efforts in end-use energy efficiency, discusses design modifications proposed by the European Commission and explores practical solutions in line with the recent proposal of the Commission for amending Directive 2003/87/EC. The paper proposes solutions how to include these additional end-use energy efficiency opportunities in the EU ETS. While the primary scope of the ETS is to reduce emissions in a cost effective manner, depending on its design the EU ETS could also foster additional energy efficiency, thus bringing additional and cheaper options to the carbon market.

REZESSY Silvia;  BERTOLDI Paolo;  VOOGT Monique; 

2010-01-28

ACEEE

JRC45989

https://publications.jrc.ec.europa.eu/repository/handle/JRC45989,