Power plants and factories covered by the EU’s emissions trading scheme (EU ETS) used more UN-issued carbon credits to meet their emissions targets last year than ever before, analyst firm Thomson Reuters Point Carbon said this week, noting that companies could be looking to offload soon-to-be banned offset credits issued by controversial industrial gas projects.
Businesses used 137 million tonnes worth of offset credits, made up of 117 million Certified Emissions Reductions (CERs) and 20 million Emission Reduction Units (ERUs), analysis of EU figures released yesterday revealed.
This represents an overall increase of 68 per cent on 2009, although UN credits still cover just 7.1 per cent of total EU emissions, with EU Allowances (EUAs) accounting for the rest.
Nevertheless, around 50 per cent more CERs and 600 per cent more ERU’s were used in 2010 than in 2009, with Germany surrendering 37.6 million tonnes of UN-backed credits, the EU’s largest total, followed by Poland and Spain with 15.7 million tonnes each.
The power and heat sector contributed 83.6 million tonnes worth of offsets, just over 60 per cent of the total, followed by the cement, lime and glass sector, which used 13 million tonnes, and oil and gas companies, which together used 12.8 million tonnes.
Stig Schjolset, a senior analyst with Point Carbon, said the higher usage was probably caused by the EU’s decision to ban credits generated by projects that destroy industrial by-product gases HFC 23 and N2O from 2013.
“As these credits will hold zero value as compliance instruments during phase three of the EU ETS (2013-2020), many operators have probably already opted to surrender a higher amount of such credits in 2010 than would otherwise have been the case,” he said.
