SABIC INVESTMENT AND EMISSIONS
[BIZ: Amsterdam, December 16] According to the European industrial association Unicé, the system is not working well and is extremely unclear. Jan Berends, the manager of environmental affairs at DSM, says that the companies, in reducing CO2 emissions, are delaying their investments because of the insecurity. In the European emissions system companies have a fixed ceiling for CO2 emissions to which they have to adhere, and the assignment is based on past emissions. So the worst polluters get the most rights, according to Vianney Schuyns, the environmental manager of the Utility Support Group, a service joint venture of DSM and Sabic. Schuyns and Berends would rather see the rights assigned on the basis of efficiency. Another objection to the current system is that member states adhere to it in their own way. The Dutch parliament has submitted a motion within which the government is called upon to assign rights to a new installation on the basis of a newcomer’s rule or, if that’s not possible, to determine that the independent catalytic crackers are seen as process installations and beyond the reach of the CO2 emission agreements, as happens in other countries. [Actually, they might also get in touch with Trianel to see what solutions they may have on the emission trading front. ED.] (Source: Het Financiële Dagblad)
In an article in Het Financiële Dagblad of November 28, the construction of the EUR 1.5bn catalytic cracker by the Sabic Chemical Corporation in Heerlen is said to have become uncertain, because there is no security about the CO2 emission rights. The assignment of rights for the 2008-2012 period has not yet been completed, so the government can thus far make no comment. Sabic is considering whether it should build the catalytic cracker in Germany, which, like France, doesn’t fall within the scope of the European directive.
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