Counting The CO2
- June 7th, 2007
- Posted by EUEditor
Some early success is being claimed for the EU Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) set up to help meet targeted reductions in carbon dioxide pollution.
An independent log kept for the European Commission shows that emission from industrial plants taking part in the scheme went up by 0.3% last year, considered low when measured against Gross Domestic Product which increased by 3%.
Another review published by the European Commission and European Environment Agency (7.6.07) , the Second European Pollutant Emission Register, demonstrates that about two-thirds out of fifty air and water pollutants were already decreasing in recent years – though others continued going up.
The period of the survey was 2001-04.
Nitrogen pollutants released into water were down by 14.5% , phosphorous by 12% and dioxins/furans by 22.5%.
However emissions of certain other pollutants were higher, including carbon dioxide by 5.7%.
The European Commission pointed out that key tools to control CO2 emissions, like the ETS, were not in place when the information was gathered.
In the meantime Greenpeace has cast a sceptical eye on claims of large scale progress with energy waste.
It said in Brussels (5.6.07) a phasing-out of energy inefficient lighting on the market, announced by the European Lamp Companies Federation, would be far too slow.
It said that in the plan, the most common incandescent light bulbs would not be withdrawn before 2015, meaning that in the next eight years, millions of tons of CO2 would be “needlessly pumped into the atmosphere”.
Greenpeace wants all lamps with an efficiency rating below 25 lumen per Watt to be phased out by 2010 and objects to arguments by producers such as Philips, Osram, GE or Sylvania that the market cannot move so fast.
“When products become trendy, markets can move very quickly to meet demand,” said Sharon Becker, International Climate Campaigner with the ecologist organisation.