Power firms to pocket £6bn from carbon ‘handouts’ in new emissions regime
2nd January 2008
The UK’s biggest polluters will reap a windfall of at least £6bn from rising power prices and the soaring value of carbon under the new European carbon trading scheme that critics say fails to correct the flaws of the system it replaced.
From January 1st 2008, the second phase of the European Trading Scheme (ETS) took effect. Analysts have predicted that the price of carbon for 2008, already trading at about 22 per ton, could nearly double under the new regime, which sets much lower emissions ceilings for the participating countries than those that existed under the recently ended first phase
