Sustainable Energy Law Notebook

The Danish Energy Commission has just delivered its report on the future energy policy of the country ( " Energikommissionens anbefalinger til fremtidens energipolitik " , April 2017). The report comes with a series of recommendations which should enable the country to reach the long-term goal of becoming a low-emissions society based on renewable energy by 2050, with an intermediary 50% goal in 2030. The Commission received the mandate of looking at the measures necessary to be implemented in the period 2020-2030. It argues notably in favour of the following main points below. The summary is followed by a rapid assessment.

You can find below the reference to my latest publication :  "Effectiveness in Climate Regulation: Simultaneous Application of a Carbon Tax and an Emissions Trading Scheme to the Offshore Petroleum Sector in Norway" C. Banet in Carbon and Climate Law Review (2017) 11(1), pp.25-38 Accessible at: http://cclr.lexxion.eu/article/CCLR/2017/1/5 Summary : The present article discusses effectiveness in environmental regulation when two instruments, a carbon dioxide tax (CO2 tax) and an emissions trading scheme (ETS), are applied concomitantly to the same activity. The Norwegian regulation of the CO2 emissions from the upstream petroleum sector is taken as an example since it submits this sector to both the payment of a CO2 tax and the obligation to surrender emissions allowances under the EU ETS since Norway joined the scheme in 2008. The specific approach to this double regulation consists in adjusting the rate of the CO2 tax according to the price for the EU

The European Commission has announced on 7 April 2017 that it has opened an in-depth investigation into the German plans to establish a capacity mechanism in the form of an electricity capacity reserve . The investigation aims to establish whether the German proposal of an electricity capacity mechanism complies with EU state aid rules . Of particular relevance for the assessment are the  Guidelines on State aid rules for energye and environmental protection (2014-2020) (so-called EEAG). This in-depth investigation comes after the adoption, by the Commission of an EU Sector Inquiry, common assessment criteria in the EEAG and a series of decisions on capacity market mechanisms in several EU Member States (UK, France, Germany).