European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen on Tuesday rebuffed a call by Poland for the EU to temporarily suspend its emissions trading system (ETS) to help rein in high power prices. Eight European Union countries bordering the Baltic Sea - including Poland - have agreed to increase offshore wind power generation capacity sevenfold by 2030.
At an energy summit in Copenhagen, Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki suggested suspending the ETS system, the European Union's main tool for reducing carbon emissions and meeting climate change targets. "Why add another 90 or 100 euros in the form of ETS allowances to already very high electricity prices. We can revert back to the system the moment we secure energy for all of Europe and we bring back peace to Ukraine," Morawiecki said at a news conference. The ETS forces power plants and industries to buy permits when they produce CO2 emissions, providing a financial incentive to pollute less, to dodge the carbon costs. That feeds into the cost of power, but CO2 costs have not been the main contributor to the recent surge in European power prices. Von der Leyen said ETS costs were contributing around 6% of the electricity price, versus 94% caused by other factors - mainly, the surging price of gas. "We need the emission trading system to cut CO2 emissions," she said. Instead, she said, the EU is working on an emergency tool and a structural reform of the EU's electricity market to bring down power costs. Poland, which produces most of its power from coal, has previously called for the EU to stop financial speculators from trading EU carbon permits, which Warsaw says has helped push up the permit price.
"Great potential for offshore wind"
Eight European Union countries bordering the Baltic Sea have agreed to increase offshore wind power generation capacity sevenfold by 2030 to decrease dependency on Russian energy, Denmark's prime minister said on Tuesday. The pledges come after Russia has either reduced or halted gas supplies to some countries since its invasion of Ukraine. "We share a great potential for offshore wind," Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said at an energy summit in Copenhagen. "As long as we depend on fossil fuels, we are vulnerable." The Baltic Sea currently has 2.8 gigawatts (GW) offshore wind capacity installed, with almost all of it in Danish and German waters. The agreement was made at a summit attended by European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen and ministers and lawmakers from Denmark, Germany, Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Finland and Sweden, which all border the Baltic Sea.
Źródło: TVN24 News in English, Reuters