Steel company complains of carbon quotas
Steel company Mittal have complained that the European carbon emissions caps will limit steel production. The company executives complain that Polish quotas have been cut, and that “it will not be easy to transfer quotas from one country to another”. Funny, I thought that was what a carbon emissions market did - enable inter-installation, inter-company and inter-country quota transfers. Are we missing something here?
Or is it a case of why buy something, when lobbying could get it for you for free? Can’t say that I’m sympathetic.
“Arcelor Mittal, the world’s biggest steel company, has warned that a blitz of planned investments in Europe to meet booming demand is threatened by strict new EU caps on greenhouse gas emissions to combat climate change.
At the opening of the group’s new $381m (£188m) hot strip mill in Krakow, Michel Wurth, board member in charge of flat products in Europe, said: “By cutting the allocation of CO2 quotas, the European commission will limit our growth possibilities in Europe and encourage a surge of imports from countries unaffected by such controls.”
. . .
Polish directors claim the group has cut emissions by 25% in the past three years but admit that the local operations have a considerable way to go to meet commitments to reach EU norms by 2010-12. Mr Wurth said the group had cut overall emissions in Europe by 20% since 1990.
“Steel today is environmentally friendly and can be endlessly recycled,” he said. “We can now dramatically reduce the weight of steel in its industrial applications so that, if one were to build the Eiffel Tower with current products and technology, it would weigh 25% of what it actually does - and that drastically cuts CO2. It will not be easy to transfer [CO2] quotas from one country to another so we need to find agreements with the governments in different countries so we can grow.”