Coal 'ring-fenced' in German plan

Coal 'ring-fenced' in German plan

Washington DC (Platts)--30Mar2004


Environmental groups have strongly criticized Monday's compromise between the
German economic and environment ministries on its national allocation plan,
the EU-required document setting emissions limits and allowances to be granted
in the run-up to emissions trading set for 2005.

Meanwhile, Britain announced on Monday that it will miss the EU deadline of
March 31 for submitting its plans to cut carbon dioxide emissions under the
EU's Emissions Trading Scheme, part of the Kyoto Protocol. VDEW, an umbrella
group for German power utilities, said it welcomed the compromise, but Regine
Gunther of the World Wide Fund for Nature said the German plan "is a Pyrrhic
victory for the industry." She said she expected that the EU would demand
changes. 

Bund, the German branch of Friends of the Earth, said a shorter period of time
in which plants can be operated without cutting CO2 emissions, for example
five years instead of 14, would have been better for climate protection. The
14-year period basically sets the status quo of technology at current levels,
Bund says.

In the compromise, Germany said plants which are older than 30 years and have
an efficiency rate of less than 31% for brown coal and 36% for hard coal would
have to cut emissions by an additional 15%.  Bund said the government is
"setting up a protective fence around coal and old fossil industries."
Companies who are willing to invest in modern technology are the losers of the
compromise, Bund said.