A sharp fall in carbon emissions last year across the European Union's emissions trading scheme underlined today the impact of recession on industry, according to Reuters. Preliminary EU data showed emissions across the scheme fell 11.2 percent, with some industrial sectors down at least 30 percent, and Estonia, Romania, Hungary, Spain and Italy registering bigger national tumbles. "It reflects the impact of a very deep recession on output, and a greening of European power in a move towards gas and renewables," said Barclays Capital analyst Trevor Sikorski. Power demand was down 5-6 percent last year but the electricity generation sector's carbon emissions showed a steeper 8.5 percent drop, underlining a move to zero carbon wind and low-carbon natural gas. The EU emissions trading scheme (ETS) limits the carbon emissions of over 12,000 factories and power plants, covering 44 percent of EU emissions, and is meant to drive the 27-nation bloc's compliance with targets under the international Kyoto Protocol. The drop in emissions, widely forecast by analysts, reinforced expectations that companies will have more permits called EU allowances (EUAs) than they need during the whole second trading phase of the scheme from 2008-2012, continuing a surplus seen in the first period from 2005-2007. Carbon prices as a result are too low to drive investment in more expensive green technologies such as carbon capture and storage, fitted to the smokestacks of coal plants. For a table of the 2009 emissions data click
