EU nations on Friday agreed on what industry sectors to help if they face a problem of companies moving outside the bloc to escape stricter European rules on tackling climate change.
The list will only be formally adopted if an adequate global deal on battling climate change does not emerge from international talks in Copenhagen in December, a European Commission spokeswoman said.
The issue of 'carbon leakage', as the problem is referred to, relates to the risk that companies in sectors subject to strong international competition might relocate from the EU to third countries with less stringent constraints on greenhouse gas emissions.
If Europe clamps down hard, it could see companies and jobs migrate abroad to escape its tougher regulations.
The industries at risk will be given a bigger share of greenhouse gas emission allowances free of charge than other sectors, under a revised EU Emissions Trading System (EU ETS) which will apply from 2013.
"Just in case there is an agreement (in Copenhagen) that is less ambitious and is likely to expose our industry to carbon leakage, then we will have this list and we would know how to distribute extra credits to these sectors," commission spokeswoman on the enviromment Barbara Helfferich said.
The list of 164 industry sectors and sub-sectors includes heavy industry such as coal, steel and aluminium manufacture as well as safeguarding industries as diverse as wine, aircraft, textiles and cutlery.
The list was approved at a meeting of the commission's Climate Change Committee, where representatives of the 27 EU nations agreed with the EU executive's suggestions based on detailed criteria on CO2 costs and trade exposure.
If the list is not scrapped or revised by the member states or parliament at the end of the year, then it will apply for five years, through until 2014, but sectors may be added during this period.
The actual number of free allowances that these industrial sectors will enjoy will be decided later.
The targeted sectors combined are estimated to account for over three quarters of the total emissions from manufacturing industry in the EU Emissions Trading Scheme, under which CO2 emissions can be bought and sold.
EU nations last year agreed to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 20 percent in 2020 from 1990 levels.
They European Union wants to seal an even more ambitious deal in Copenhagen but is aware of the problems to its own industry as well as the global climate if there is no deal or a minimal one.
Share This Article With Planet Earth
