The EU will force to use the extra money of the CO ₂ against the energetic poverty

The European Commission is preparing to create a fund to help vulnerable consumers cope with the sharp rise in tariffs implied by the increase in the prices of _CO2 emission rights.

The proposal of the department headed by Frans Timmermans will be announced on July 14, within the package called Fit for 55 and will serve for the additional income that the States are registering due to the rise in CO₂ (quoted at €50 per tonne, more than double last year) can help address the receipts of the most vulnerable consumers and thus meet the objective of a just transition.

The evolution of prices, in addition, is expected to continue to rise. The International Energy Agency’s _CO2 quote forecasts set a price of around 250 euros in 2050.

This strong increase will have a direct impact on some of the basic supplies and already this summer the most expensive prices in history may be recorded, as indicated at the moment by the electricity futures quotes.

The measure prepared by the Community Executive has coincided with the launch of the Draft Law that tries to deal with the so-called windfall profits of the Spanish Government and that has already cost the price of the electricity companies around 7,000 million euros of fall.

The Secretary of State for Energy, Sara Aagsen, held a meeting last Wednesday with the Director General of Energy of the European Commission, Ditta Juul Jorgensen, to explain the details of this project, as advanced by elEconomista.

The European Commission said yesterday that in the meeting between both parties there were no opinions or points of view on the proposed Law of the Spanish Government and limited themselves to clarifying that they observe the proposal from different angles and will be in contact with the Spanish authorities for a technical follow-up.

On the part of the Ministry of Ecological Transition, any tension with the Commission was categorically denied for this reason and it was explained that the meeting, which took place at the request of the Spanish Government, was developed with a friendly tone. The Ministry, however, indicated that it had also not received any assessment from the EU on this preliminary draft.

European Council

The Vice President of Ecological Transition, Teresa Ribera, traveled on Wednesday to Luxembourg to participate this Thursday in the Council of Ministers of the Environment.

Ribera took advantage of the trip to hold a meeting with Timmermans where this matter was also analyzed, as confirmed by the Ministry, and later, with the Commissioner for Energy, Kadri Simpson.

In Spain, the increase in the price of _CO2 will allow the Government to collect around 2,200 million in taxes based on the auctions of _CO2 emissions, corresponding to 50 million tons to be auctioned and taking as a reference the _CO2 prices that mark the futures.

This amount represents an additional income of more than 1,100 million compared to what had been entering in previous years, which has been around 1,000 million euros.

The proposal put forward by the Spanish Government differs from the European one in that the amounts to compensate vulnerable consumers would not come in this case from CO auctions₂, but of a reassessment carried out by the CNMC on the market revenues received by wind, nuclear and hydraulic power plants prior to 2005 and which, in the opinion of the Ministry, are already amortized.

On the part of the electricity sector, the measure was categorically rejected and it is expected that in the coming days the allegations presented to the project will be announced.

Associations such as Wind Europe or Eurelectric have already shown their opposition to the Government’s draft, which plans to allocate 90% of the nearly 1,000 million expected revenues to the payment of the so-called Recore (remuneration of renewables and cogeneration) and the remaining 10% to vulnerable consumers. The measure would leave the revenues of the _CO2 auctions to continue going to the electricity tariff and industries as until now.

Support for the EU’s ‘Zero Pollution’ plan

The fourth vice-president of the Government, Teresa Ribera, defended yesterday at the meeting of the Council of Ministers of the Environment the convenience of adopting ambitious goals within the new Community Action Plan for Zero Pollution. The Plan debated by the 27 establishes objectives for reducing discharges and polluting emissions until 2030 as an action guide for the impacts that these substances generate on human health and ecosystems.

Source: The Economist