Britain should abolish its carbon floor price to help the hard-hit steel industry, the lawmaker shepherding a reform of the EU Emissions Trading System (ETS) through parliament said on Tuesday. With the British government looking for ways to save jobs threatened by the sale of Indian firm Tata Steel’s British plants, Scottish Conservative Ian Duncan said repealing the carbon floor was one of the few tools available to it. “The carbon floor price must go,” Duncan said, adding he would write to British Business Secretary Sajid Javid calling for an end to the policy in place since 2013. --Alissa de Carbonnel, Reuters, 5 April 2016
The planned reform of CO2 emissions trading in Europe threatens hundreds of thousands of jobs in Germany. This is the conclusion of a study by the research institute Prognos and commissioned by the German Steel Association. "The industrial business model of the German economy is at stake," warned association president Hans Jürgen Kerkhoff. According to the Prognos study, production and employment in the German steel industry would collapse by two thirds by 2030. "European Steel would no longer be competitive," said the CEO of Dax Group, Heinrich Hiesinger. The plans are having an impact already. "Investment prospects are affected", said Steel President Kerkhoff. "Consequently, companies are holding back." --Carsten Dierig, Die Welt, 30 March 2016
