Tag Carbon Management

The European Commission adopted new measures to implement the judgment issued last April 2016 by the Court of Justice.

As reported in our previous  article, the judgment had invalidated the cross-sectoral correction factor (CSCF) used to allocate free allowances from 2013 to 2020 to stationary installations in the scope of EU-ETS, granting 10 months to the Commission to establish a new amount.

The recently approved Decision (linked at the bottom of this article), defines the new CSCF to be applied to all new allocations adopted after 1 March 2017: new entrants installations and increased capacity of existing ones will receive a reduced free allocation of about 5% compared to the current system.

As defined by the judgment, recalculations will not affect the allocations already approved, that will remain unchanged, except in case of variations in activity or capacity levels, as already defined by the current Regulation on monitoring and reporting of greenhouse gas emissions.

As already provided in Directive 2009/29/EC, the allocation of free allowances for district heating and high-efficiency cogeneration is not subject to the CSCF.

In the short term this Decision is not expected to have a material impact on carbon market.

The new correction factor will not be applied to the allocations in the period 2021 – 2030, that will follow the stricter linear reduction factor currently discussed in the European Parliament.

Link to the full text of the Decision (EU) 2017/126: http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=uriserv:OJ.L_.2017.019.01.0093.01.ENG&toc=OJ:L:2017:019:TOC

On 28th April 2016 the EU Court of Justice declared invalid the maximum annual amount of free allowances for greenhouse gas emissions determined by the Commission for the period 2013-2020.

The judgment is a consequence of the legal actions that a number of companies included in the scope of ETS brought before the courts in Italy, the Netherlands and Austria against the National Authorities entrusted with the allocation of GHG allowances. The subject of dispute was the calculation method applied to define the maximum annual amount of allowances.

As a consequence, the Cross Sectoral Correction Factor (CSCF) applied to preliminary allocations with Decision 2013/448/EU is not valid and shall be re-calculated on the basis of new data to be provided by the Member States; the maximum annual amount of allowances could be higher or lower than that thus far determined by the Commission.

The Commission is granted 10 months to establish a new amount, whereas the previous allocations of allowances cannot be called into question.

The full text of the judgment is available on the CURIA website http://curia.europa.eu/juris/celex.jsf?celex=62014CJ0191&lang1=it&type=TXT&ancre=

Buildings in which we work and live, are responsible for 80% of greenhouse gas emissions globally. This is due to energy consumption for lighting, summer air conditioning, winter heating, but also to the use of natural resources and building materials which create additional greenhouse gas emissions while being produced and disposed at the end of their life cycle.

Welldom, with Biocasa_82, commissioned by Claudia and Enrico Moretti Polegato (President Diadora, VP Geox), demonstrated how a building, in this case a residential house, can achieve the highest standards of respect for the environment throughout its entire life cycle, resulting at the same time an extremely comfortable place to live.

Biocasa_82 is compliant with the international standard of sustainability LEED for Homes at ‘Platinum’ level, but Welldom wanted to calculate analytically the reduction of GHG emissions throughout the life cycle, compared to the construction of a traditional building in Class C. This study was commissioned to MR Energy.

On 14th September 2015, the project will be presented to the public at EXPO Milano 2015.

Following this link to the event invitation.

MR Energy Systems will take part in the Smart Energy Expo, 2014 edition (Verona fair – Italy)

On October 8th, Marco Zanetto will present an Industrial case study from Small Medium Enterprises on energy efficiency in Italy.

The EURAC workshop ‘Voluntary tools in the implementation of the European low carbon strategy in Italy: the Covenant of Mayors and other instruments for public – private partnerships at local level‘, will be held next Wednesday in the ‘Smart City & Communities’, from 10:00 to 15:00.

Link al comunicato pdf:  2014_07_09_Press_Release ITA; 2014_07_09_Press_Release EN

MR Energy Systems and Greenhouse Gas Management Institute cooperate to expand reach of carbon management education to Italy

e-learning courses on GHG monitoring, reporting and verification

Venezia, Italy (9th July 2014)

MR Energy Systems (MR Energy), the leading provider of consulting engineering in the field of sustainability, and the Greenhouse Gas Management Institute, the leading trainer on greenhouse gas accounting and verification, are delighted to announce that they will be cooperating to expand carbon management education to Italy.

Many countries and regions are establishing policies, including the creation of carbon markets, designed to cut the emissions that cause climate change. An increasing number of companies are establishing GHG emission reduction targets, both in reaction to such policies, and voluntarily, as a strategic response to the risks associate to climate change.  An effective and credible GHG management system is a cornerstone for the success of any such initiative. To support this process in Italy, MR Energy will now be delivering GHG Management Institute courses to Italian students, practitioners, and leaders. This collaboration will provide Italian government, industry, and academia with a comprehensive overview of carbon management —from the background and principles of carbon accounting and monitoring, to detailed specifics of GHG reporting and verification.

Commenting on the collaboration, Mauro Roglieri, MR Energy’s General Manager, said, “Our e-learning platform, MR Energy Academy, reflects our commitment to provide the market with effective services and tools to support the transition to a sustainable economy. We believe that knowledge is always the first and main driver for change. This is why we’re really proud to announce the Partnership with GHG Management Institute, surely a high quality standard guarantee for Italian operators.”
Michael Gillenwater, Dean of the GHG Management Institute, said, “The Institute is delighted to be partnering with MR Energy to expand its training curriculum and grow the community of greenhouse gas experts around the world, which we believe is essential to addressing climate change.“

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About MR Energy Systems

MR Energy Systems is an Italian Consulting Engineering company, with many years of experience in the field of carbon & energy management and other services related with climate change mitigation. MR Energy Systems supports public and private organizations to lower their energy and environmental impacts towards a sustainable economy. MR Energy Academy is an on-line education platform, created by MR Energy Systems to share its experience and know-how with a wide range of professionals.

For more information, go to http://academy.mrenergy.it/en/ 

Watch a short video here: http://youtu.be/k1dGI7fQ3o4

About the Greenhouse Gas Management Institute

The Greenhouse Gas Management Institute is a nonprofit organization focused on training and education. The Institute’s mission is to train and develop a global community of experts with the highest standards of professional practice in measuring, accounting, auditing, and managing greenhouse gas emissions; meeting the needs of governments, corporations, and organizations large and small.

For more information, go to www.ghginstitute.org

The European Commission adopted a decision on Member States’ national implementation measures (NIMs) for phase three of the EU Emissions Trading System (EU ETS).

The actual number of allowances handed out each year will be adjusted by a ‘cross-sectoral correction factor’ which will vary each year. This will ensure that the total amount handed out for free does not exceed a maximum set in the ETS Directive. The correction factor will be 5.73 % in 2013 and will thereafter increase gradually to 17.56% in 2020.

It is now for Member State authorities to take the necessary steps to distribute the free allowances to installations via their accounts in the Union registry. This will take around one to three months depending on the procedures to be followed in each Member State.

The original article is available in the EC web page.

Starting from 1 January 2013, the European Emissions Trading System entered its third phase of implementation. Italy applies the new regulation defined by the European Directive 2009/29/EC with the Decree n. 30 of 13 March 2013, that defines simplified procedures for small installation that requested the exclusion (also called “opt-out”) from the ETS.

The Italian Competent Authority, with Deliberation 16/2013,  has recently approved a list of 166 small emitters and their annual emissions cap, defining the new requirements and procedures to fulfill. To be compliant to the system, small emitters shall submit the Monitoring Plan, in the new simplified format, no later than 30 September 2013.

On 28 June 2013, the European Commission issued a proposal for maritime transport regulation on the monitoring, reporting and verification of carbon dioxide emissions from shipping sector. The COM(2013) 480 Proposal was drawn  after a public consultation occurred during 2010 (SWD(2013) 237 final), involving the main stakeholders: private companies, ship-owners, ports operators, trade unions, EU Regional and National public authorities and NGOs.

The Regulation lays down rules for the emissions management of ships arriving at, within or departing from ports under the jurisdiction of a Member State – transport by 1 July 2015 – in order to promote the reduction of CO2 emissions from maritime transport in a cost effective manner.

At present the European Emissions Trading System includes the most energy-intensive industries and aviation. The extension of the system to the maritime sector would significantly broaden the binding system to reduce GHG emissions in Europe.

Decreto Legislativo n.30 of 13th March 2013, transposes Directive 2009/29/EC (Emissions Trading) into Italian legislation.

Art. 2 defines in clearer terms the scope of work of the Directive, in particular in realtion with the waste incineration plants.

GSE is appointed to set up and manage the auctioning platform for allowances. Most of the content of the decree reflects changes already introduced in the past months in operative terms by specific resolutions of the National Competent Authority.

The European Commission has adopted this summer the new regulations on monitoring and reporting of greenhouse gas emissions and on verification and accreditation of verifiers under the EU Emissions Trading System, that will rule the third trading period of the EU ETS starting in January 2013.

The Italian ETS committee has approved the list of plants that fall within the scope of the Emissions Trading Directive, including the pre-allocation of free allowances (subject to EC review).

Operators of ETS plants will be asked in the coming months, to submit further documentation to align with the new regulation.