BEIS to double fines for breaching EU emissions trading regulations

The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy has almost doubled the CO2 price that is used to calculate penalties for companies found to have violated the Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) Regulations.

Fines that are issued in 2020 for misreporting emissions regulated through the ETS will be calculated using the price of £21.93 per tonne of CO2, rather than the 2018 value of £12.61 per tonne of CO2.

The Global Carbon Project presented their new research at the COP25 talks in Madrid and stated that the global increase in emissions for 2019 are likely to be slower than the increase in 2018 and 2017 however, there is still a long way to go to achieve the rapid cuts needed to keep global temperature rise below 1.5°C.

Although there has been a 10% reduction in coal use within the EU and the US, global emissions are forecast to be up by 0.6% on 2018 levels.

The research also states that China’s emissions are set to increase by 2.6% which is down to an increase in usage of coal, oil and natural gas as well as increase in cement production. India’s emissions however, are likely to be lower at 1.8%, which is down to an unusually large amount of rain throughout the year, flooding coal mines and driving hydro power.