Alex Cunningham – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Energy and Climate Change

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Alex Cunningham on 2016-05-18.

To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, with reference to the Answer of 14 April 2016 to Question 33418, what progress her Department has made on options for taking account of process emissions in a tiering system for the allocation of free allowances under Phase IV of the EU Emissions Trading System; and what those options are.

Andrea Leadsom

The Government supports reform to strengthen the EU Emissions Trading System (ETS) while continuing to support the competitiveness of British businesses in the transition to a low-carbon economy. We recognise the barriers to decarbonisation in certain sectors due to high proportions of emissions from chemical processes. Negotiations to reform the EU ETS are still in the early stages, with discussions ongoing on possible tiered free allocation to industrial sectors. We will continue to work closely with UK industry to consider ways to account for the issue of process emissions in the next phase of the EU ETS starting in 2021.