Partner Article

CBI welcomes new emissions directive

The CBI yesterday welcomed the outcome of the vote on the Industrial Emissions Directive in the European Parliament in Strasbourg.

The vote will give energy companies until 30 June 2020 to upgrade power plants to comply with air pollution targets.

The CBI argued that companies needed until this date to comply with the Directive to give them enough time to build alternative low-carbon energy sources to replace lost capacity.

The CBI also welcomes the agreement to maintain the current flexible risk-based approach to monitoring industrial emissions. This was preferable to a one-size-fits-all European Safety Net, which would have undermined the flexibility of the UK to decide how best to meet pollution targets.

Sarah Green, Regional Director, CBI North East, said:

“This vote is good news. It will allow a smooth and sensible transition to increased use of low-carbon energy sources. The alternative would have meant forced closure of many existing power stations without sufficient time to build replacements. This could have seriously undermined the UK’s energy security.

“We are pleased that the current flexible risk-based approach, which has been working well in the UK, will remain the basis for meeting air pollution targets, rather than the one-size-fits-all Europe-wide approach which had been discussed.”

This vote follows intensive negotiations between the European Parliament and European Council, which have taken place over the last three months. It finalises two years of negotiations on the directive which will update the existing Integrated Pollution Prevention and Control Directive, passed in 1996, and regulate how much pollution industrial installations can emit each year.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ruth Mitchell .