Germany may recommend minimum carbon price for Europe -draft
FRANKFURT, May 4 (Reuters) - Germany is considering lobbying for a minimum price to be set on Europe-wide avoidance of carbon dioxide emissions to boost the effectiveness of carbon schemes that have so far failed to cut CO2 and battle climate change, a draft document outlining the nation's energy and climate policy shows.
The government wishes to reform the mandatory European Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) to help create tightness in the market for carbon emissions permits which polluters must hold to cover their output and thus drive up prices, said the document for a policy up to 2050, seen by Reuters.
In the document, an alternative paragraph yet to be decided on said the government would consider strengthening the ETS "by introducing a Europe-wide minimum price" alongside other measures to boost industrial efficiency. In text not marked as still under discussion, it suggested measures to boost industrial efficiency and thereby create emissions savings, to monitor emissions better and to set financial incentives on reducing environmental damage.
The government is due to decide on a national climate action plan for 2050 by mid-2016.
After global leaders clinched a climate-protection deal in Paris last December to transform the world's fossil-fuel driven economy, calls grew for Berlin to set out a faster timetable for the country's power sector to withdraw from a heavy reliance on coal.
The draft - with annotations and alternative phrasings for a number of issues - still needs to be rubber-stamped by other ministries and has not yet been approved by Environment Minister Barbara Hendricks.
The ETS, introduced in 2005, has failed to steer EU economies away from coal.
Pollution permits cost nearly 30 euros a tonne in 2008 but are currently just over 6 euros.
However, they rallied to three-month highs late in April when the French government committed to unilaterally setting a price floor for power generators in a move aimed at curbing coal-fired plants and boosting renewables.
This demonstrated the sensitivity of the market to any consideration of policy changes. (Writing by Vera Eckert; Editing by Paul Carrel and Matthew Lewis)
