ETS emissions rise 3% in 2010

New figures for 2010 show that greenhouse-gas (GHG) emissions from installations covered by the EU emissions trading scheme (ETS) increased by 3% compared with 2009 levels.

Verified GHG emissions from the more than 12,000 participating installations were 1.93 billion tonnes of CO2-equivalent last year. Emissions from the 1,136 UK installations covered by the ETS increased by just over 2.3%.

The European Commission says the 3% pan-EU rise reflects the improving economic conditions in 2010 following the recession, which saw ETS emissions fall 11.6% in 2009.

The rise in emissions is substantially lower than the rebound in output from industrial installations across the EU 27, however, which averaged 6.7% last year.

“The emissions increase in 2010 reflects the economic recovery, but even after the economy coming back to normal, the EU ETS emissions remain well below the cap for the 2008−2012 trading period,” said climate action commissioner, Connie Hedegaard.

Cambridge Econometrics has provided more evidence that the recession delivered a sharp fall in UK carbon emissions in 2009, followed by a modest rise in 2010.

The analyst’s latest forecast suggests a rise of around 2% in domestic carbon emissions in 2010, driven by increases in emissions from households, industry and commerce.

The forecast also says that the UK is likely to miss the previous government’s longstanding goal of reducing CO2 emissions, based on domestic abatement effort, by 20% against 1990 levels by 2010.

Cambridge Econometrics estimates that only a 15.5% reduction was achieved by the end of 2010.