Tag Archives: european
New Biofuel Proposals Could Have ‘Severe Implications’
22 April 2013 A PROPOSAL to reduce the market size for biofuel production in Europe will damage farmer confidence and reduce the incentive to produce for food, feed and fuel, the NFU has warned. The warning comes following the publication of a draft opinion on the indirect land use change (ILUC) proposal by French MEP Corinne Lepage. As the European Parliament’s lead rapporteur on the Environment Committee, Ms Lepage will set the tone for forthcoming debates on the contribution biofuels can make to the Renewable Energy Directive targets, which currently require member states to achieve 10 per cent renewable transport fuel by 2020. The draft opinion seeks to introduce ILUC factors on biofuel production and tightens the cap proposed by the European Commission to 4.27 per cent for biodiesel produced from oil crops. International land use modelling has provided a wide range of results and the NFU believes the EU Commission has chosen one modelling result, which includes some basic errors that bias results against biodiesel, on which to base its proposal. NFU crops board member Brett Askew said: “The consequences of this for arable production could be devastating and a further blow to UK and EU agriculture, with an estimated reduction of one-third in the cropped area of EU and UK oilseed rape and the impact of losing an important rotational crop on UK wheat yields. “It is clear Ms Lepage has failed to consider the severe implications of her opinion on productivity and biodiversity on-farm. Picking winners, as she has done in proposing a cap on biodiesel production, fails to reflect the interdependence of these feedstocks on-farm.” Mr Askew said the decision to introduce ILUC factors to control a ‘hypothetical conflict of food versus fuel naively confuses two issues of agricultural production and the original ILUC greenhouse gas savings’. “This simplistic approach fails to reflect the factors behind increasing production on farm, for all markets,” he added. “Simply destroying demand will not lead to an increase in future stock levels but instead a decline in production as markets correct themselves to reflect economic supply and demand levels.” Continue reading
Paterson Urges EU Ministers To Stand Firm On CAP Co-Financing
13 May 2013 | By Alistair Driver DEFRA Secretary Owen Paterson has urged EU Ministers not to compromise on co-financing transfers of money between the pillars of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP). Mr Paterson briefly outlined the UK’s position on CAP reform in Brussels as EU Ministers discussed progress towards the goal of a final deal next month. In one of the main issues that remain unresolved, EU Ministers are under pressure from MEPs, the European Commission and EU farming organisations to agree to ‘co-finance’ any funds transferred via modulation from Pillar One (direct payments) of the CAP to Pillar Two covering rural development under the reformed CAP. The Council of Ministers agreed in their March negotiating mandate to allow member states and regions to transfer 15 per cent of their Pillar One direct payment pot to bolster rural development scheme, without any requirement to match these funds, as is currently the case with modulation. Addressing his EU counterparts on Monday, Mr Paterson said all member states had to make difficult compromises to reach agreement in March. “Further compromises can only be in the context of a full package of issues. It will be essential that the final package is allied to the deal reached by heads of government on the Multiannual Financial Framework (CAP budget) February, for example on capping and co-financing rates,” he said. Irish Farming Minister Simon Coveney, chairing the talks on behalf of the Irish presidency of the EU, is representing the Council of Ministers in ‘trilogue’ negotiations with the European Parliament and the European Commission. The main focus of Monday’s talks were the proposed young farmers’ and small farmers’ scheme and whether they should be voluntary or compulsory and the definition of ‘active farmer’ that will determine who is eligible for payments under the reformed regime. Mr Coveney stressed he was not seeking to change to the Council’s negotiating mandate, but rather to ‘establish the extent of any potential room for manoeuvre on these points as we try to reconcile the differing positions of the three institutions’. Member states are generally in favour of the young farmers’ and small farmers’ being voluntary, while the European Parliament wants the young farmers’ scheme to be compulsory. Mr Paterson strongly backed the voluntary position saying member states themselves are ‘best placed’ to decide what sort of support they should offer. He said he could see ‘no justification for small farmers opting out of complying with requirements like cross compliance’. He said he was also ‘quite clear’ the active farmer scheme should be voluntary, stressing that in all aspects of the new policy, the priority should be to ‘avoid unnecessary complexity for farmers and paying agencies’. EU Agriculture Minister Dacian Ciolos told Ministers he remained confident a deal at the June Council of Ministers meeting is still ‘doable’, despite a number of areas agreement is still some way off. “As far as I concerned I am still committed to it,” he said. Mr Ciolos warned Ministers that in order to get a deal the negotiating mandate they submitted to the Irish presidency in March will have to change in order to secure a final agreement, as will the positions of the EU Parliament and the Commission. He said the young farmer and small farmer schemes must be compulsory and stressed the importance of retaining a ‘common’ policy. He reiterated his concern about giving too much flexibility to member states in how the implement the new regime. “My objective is to have a CAP that works for all member states but not an uncommon agricultural policy,” Mr Ciolos said. A total of twelve trilogues has taken place across the four CAP reform dossiers since April 11. Mr Ciolos said two-thirds of these meetings were still to come as efforts continue to ensure next month’s Council of Ministers meeting represents the ‘home straight’. Continue reading
Carbon Market ‘Champions’ Undeterred: EU Climate Chief
10 May 2013 Carbon-market supporters from China to California will push for emissions trading even as they prepare for the end of the United Nations Kyoto Protocol in seven years, Europe’s top climate negotiator said. Nations including China and New Zealand and some US states have formed an informal group, “kind of the champions of the carbon market,” Artur Runge-Metzger said in a May 2 interview in Bonn, Germany. “It’s that club that’s going to set international standards” rather than UN talks, he said. Countries are increasing links between markets outside of the climate-protection targets set by the UN, which has led global efforts to reduce emissions since 1992. California last month approved rules that allow companies in the world’s ninth largest economy to trade pollution rights in Quebec, while Australia in 2012 agreed to use European permits to cut costs. The 1997 Kyoto Protocol sets market-based emission- reduction targets for the EU and 37 countries. The US and China, the biggest polluters, never signed, making the agreement “something that ended up in a kind of cul-de-sac,” Runge- Metzger said during the climate talks last week. Under the EU’s cap-and-trade system, designed to meet the bloc’s Kyoto targets, tradable permits are allocated to polluters that must surrender enough of them to cover their emissions or pay a fine. The euro area’s second recession since 2008 cut demand for allowances and UN credits, sending prices to record lows last month and reducing incentives to invest in low- carbon technologies. US scepticism Future agreements under the UN’s 1992 Framework Convention on Climate Change may never be implemented in “the real world,” US climate negotiators led by Todd Stern, said in a March 11 submission ahead of the Bonn talks. China has joined the World Bank’s Partnership for Market Readiness, a program which seeks to cut emissions at a faster pace than set out by existing national targets. The biggest energy user is preparing seven domestic carbon markets, covering 28 per cent of its economy. China is unlikely to link its existing and proposed carbon markets to those with emissions targets set by the UN, including the EU market, Su Wei, the nation’s lead climate negotiator, said May 2 in Bonn. “It’s too early to talk of a linkage with the EU market because that is a failed market,” Wei said in an interview. “If there are no ambitious targets there will be no demand. The carbon markets aren’t running very well.” Step back The UN has effectively “stepped back” from managing emissions programs partly because of resistance from countries against market-based climate strategies such as Bolivia, Venezuela and Cuba, Runge-Metzger said. Both international and national efforts to combat climate change are “absolutely critical” because efforts by countries and industries don’t match what’s required to stop temperatures from rising 2 degrees celsius, Christiana Figueres, executive secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, told reporters in Bonn. Governments are seeking to keep any increase in global average temperatures below that level. Climate envoys are debating whether allowances and credits used to comply with the Kyoto treaty can be used under a new market system beyond 2020 that may include more nations. Russia has the biggest stockpile of Kyoto units, according to UN data on Bloomberg. The debate over the use of the credits is “going to be quite political,” Runge-Metzger said. “The majority of countries don’t have them.” Price drop EU carbon for December plunged to a record 2.46 euros ($3.20) on April 17 on the ICE Futures Europe exchange in London after the European Parliament rejected a proposal to enable the reduction of the surplus of allowances. They slid 44 per cent in the past year and closed at 3.79 euros today. The EU’s change in emphasis toward nation-led markets is a “sensible shift in policy,” Daniel Rossetto, the London-based managing director of emissions markets adviser Climate Mundial Ltd., said in a May 7 interview. The UN approach “is probably destined to fail, while bilateral negotiations between like- minded countries is more likely to proceed,” he said. Bloomberg Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/business/carbon-economy/carbon-market-champions-undeterred-eu-climate-chief-20130510-2jbgu.html#ixzz2TGXtvt6E Continue reading
