Sustainable Energy Law Notebook

The European Commission has adopted on 25 February 2014  Commission Regulation (EU) 176/2014 which allows for back-loading the EU ETS by amending Regulation (EU) No 1031/2010 on the timing, administration and other aspects of auctioning of greenhouse gas (GHG) emission  allowances pursuant to the EU ETS Directive 2003/87/EC. The full text of the amending Regulation has been published in the Official Journal of the EU on 26 February 2014 and is available here . The regulation enters into for on 27 February 2014, is entirely binding and directly applicable in all Member States.   The calendar for back-loading of the EU ETS is put in Annex IV to the Regulation "Adjustments to the volumes of allowances (in million) to be auctioned in 2013-2020 ..."                                   2013  ...

The Council has decided today, 24 February 2014, not to object the proposal put forward by the European Commission to back-load the EU Emissions Trading System (EU ETS) , i.e. to postpone the auctioning of 900 million GHG allowances for a couple years to address the oversupply in the market .   The back-loading of allowances will not reduce in itself the number of allowances to be issued, but will postpone the moment of their release on the market . As estimated in the proportionate impact assessment of the risks of carbon leakage for particular industrial sectors, the idea is that the " back-loading can rebalance supply and demand in the transition to phase 3 and reduce price volatility without any significant impacts on competitiveness " (access document here ).    Back-loading has consequently for purpose to address the surplus of emission allowances existing on the EU ETS, a surplus which has, among other things, depreciated the value of th...

A  Commission Recommendation on minimum principles for the exploration and production of hydrocarbons such as shale gas by high-volume hydraulic fracturing has been published in the Official Journal of the EU (OJEU L 39, 8.2.2014, p.72). It is meant to help Member States who wish to carry out such activities by defining procedures, while ensuring a minimum level of protection for public health, climate and environmental protection. Background   This Recommendation forms part of the  Commission package published on 22 January 2014 which included a Communication on the same topic . It also follows up the different calls made by both the Council (Conclusions of 22.5.2013) and the European Parliament (Resolution of 21.11.2012) to assess the recourse to shale gas in EU countries and set harmonised provisions for the protection of human health and the environment.  

Focus on electricity disclosure and renewables   The Council of European Energy Regulators (CEER) has opened a public consultation on "green" electricicty . The contributions, once collected and reviewed, will serve as direct input to the draft CEER's recommendation on the manner electricity is produced, also known as "electricity disclosure" , and in particular renewable electricity disclosure. Electricity dislosure can take several forms, including by contract, statistics or certificates (so-called guarantees of origin under European law). The purpose of the recommendations is to make disclosure of "green" electricity "more transparent, resistant to fraud , reliable and consistent."