[P2P-F] Fw: Sandbag Newsletter November 2011

[robert searle]

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From: Sandbag Climate Campaign <no-reply at sandbag.org.uk>
To: dharao4 at yahoo.co.uk 
Sent: Monday, 5 December 2011, 21:57
Subject: Sandbag Newsletter November 2011

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German carbon fatcats report - Klimagoldesel 
Guten Tag from the Sandbag team, 
 November has been a very German month for Sandbag, seeing the release of our new report profiling the German companies which have benefitted most from free carbon permits under the EU Emissions Trading System Sandbag partnered with BUND (Friends of the Earth Germany) and Germanwatch in a high profile launch event on November 8th which received substantial television and print media coverage (a full list of clippings as well as English and German translations of the report and an interactive map can be found at www.sandbag.org.uk/germany ).
To date, the EU Emissions Trading System had received limited public attention in Germany, despite the centrality of the traded sector in achieving Germany’s ambitious 2020 targets (40% below 1990 levels) and the high proportion of ETS installations which are on German soil.
Our report highlighted the need for a tighter cap in the wider European scheme to ensure that Germany’s domestic efforts to reduce emissions were captured, rather than simply allowing other Member States to free ride. It also highlighted that some of the companies and sectors which had most fiercely resisted tighter ETS caps on the basis of competitiveness threats and potential job losses had actually been economically assisted by the scheme to date.
Since the report launch, Sandbag has returned to Berlin to present our findings before a cross-industry Emissions Trading Workgroup and to some important members of the German parliament.
We have also received new information about installation ownership and waste gas transfers from some of the companies profiled in the report, and are due to publish an addendum with some revised figures shortly.
Developments in the European Parliament 
The increased profile of the ETS in Germany is proving timely, as German MEPs on the Environment Committee will have considerable weight in a key initial vote on ETS reforms tabled as amendments to the draft Energy Efficiency Directive on December 20th. 
This is currently the strongest political opportunity to change the supply of permits under the scheme, and in the weeks leading up to that vote Sandbag will be working alongside our NGO partners in the UK, Germany and Brussels to galvanize MEPs to support these amendments as they reach their first hurdle.
Carbon price slipping further 
The case for political reform of the EU ETS is becoming ever clearer, with the spot price of carbon permits slipping below €8, and Deutsche Bank forecasting further drops over 2011 and 2012 if no clear signal is given that there will be political intervention soon. With current Deutsche projections finding the scheme oversupplied out to 2020, they state that the ongoing market value of a European carbon permit “now lies exclusively in…EU policymakers at some point amending current EU-ETS targets.”
UK Phase 3 allocations announced 
 On the UK front, Sandbag has been busy scrutinizing some of the proposed allocations to British industry over Phase 3 (2013-2020) as the British government applies the European-wide benchmarking rules. A leaked copy of the government’s draft figures were leaked to Point Carbon ahead of their formal publication in December.
While these new allocation rules should help prevent the kind of ongoing industrial windfalls from the EU ETS which we have identified in our Carbon Fatcats reports, there is still a danger that surpluses carried over from the current trading period (2008-2012) will buffer companies from the scheme for a long time to come.
Following on from George Osborne’s Autumn Statement, where he announced a £250 million package to support Energy Intensive Industries against their indirect carbon costs, Sandbag will be highlighting where these indirect costs are offset by direct gains in some of the companies and sectors claiming eligibility. So another busy month behind us and an even busier winter ahead.
Thanks as ever for your continued support.
Damien and the Sandbag team
All the best,The Sandbag Team  
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