The EU Emissions Trading System can fund fair climate action

According to EU Member States’ reporting, of the €13.9 billion total ETS revenues in 2018, one-third - €4.6 billion - was not spent on climate actions like insulating homes or installing renewable energy. What’s more, emissions allowances worth €11 billion were given out to polluters for free. This makes almost €16 billion of missed money for climate action last year.  

For an effective ETS for the climate, WWF makes six recommendations:

(*) Improve Member State reporting on how they spend their revenues

(*) Agree that Member States must spend 100% of revenues on climate action, and ensure climate spending is additional to state climate spending

(*) End free allocation of allowances

(*) Exclude fossil fuel investment from ETS revenue spending

(*) Remove excess ETS allowances from the market for good, and lower the cap

(*) Introduce sustainability and climate proofing rules to ETS climate spending

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