New Development in European Energy Efficiency Policies and their Integration in Carbon Market

摘要

The European Union (EU) has recently reaffirmed its strong commitment to reduce CO2 emissions. There is no dispute that end-use energy efficiency is the quickest and most cost efficient solution to reducing CO2 emissions. The Green Paper on Energy Efficiency states that by 2020 the EU could save at least 20 % of its energy consumption in a cost-effective manner and lists a number of options to achieve this,. This challenging target has been endorsed by the European heads of state and government, at their March 2007 meeting. The paper present and discuss the European Emissions Trading Scheme (EU ETS), which is a cornerstone of the EU climate change policy, however in its present design has limited impact on certain types of end-use energy efficiency measures, as well as on renewable energy sources. The paper describes also the main features of the EU CO2 emission trading in order to achieve the maximum environmental benefit as well as a high degree of economic efficiency. Recently a number of European countries have introduced market-based instruments to foster energy efficiency improvements. Some of these schemes are based on quantified energy savings targets for energy distributors or suppliers, coupled with a certification of the energy savings (via white certificates), and a possibility to trade certificates. The paper presents an upto- date review of white certificate schemes in Europe, and analyses results achieved so far. It discusses design and operational features that are key to achieve the overall saving targets.