Carbon credit costs soar as EU toughens stance on environment. Carbon prices have soared to a record high as polluters and speculative investors scramble for credits amid an environmental crackdown from the EU. … “If policy becomes tougher, prices have to go higher.” Prices have been pushed up by structural reforms to the market and pledges made on Tuesday by Ursula von der Leyen, nominee for the EC presidency. Ms von der Leyen, the current German defence minister, promised environmentally friendly policies including carbon neutrality by 2050, a new EU carbon border tax and a green deal on investment within her first 100 days in office.
FT 16th July 2019 read more »
New Aarhus draft findings: Life-time extensions of quarries require public participation. The draft findings come at a crucial time, in the run-up to the long awaited CJEU judgement in Case C-411/17, which is now scheduled for 29 July 2019. This case concerns the lifetime extension of nuclear reactors Doel 1 and 2, an area where a flurry of life-time extensions without EIA has occupied the Aarhus and Espoo Committees before now reaching the CJEU. However, the present case demonstrates that lifetime extensions are of much broader relevance. In this case, the permit allowed a five-year continued operation of a quarry, another example may be the continued operation of combustion plants. The findings therefore give the Court another good reason to follow the strong Advocate General Opinion on this case and to make clear that the need to prepare EIAs for lifetime extensions applies also beyond the nuclear context.
Client Earth 16th July 2019 read more »