FuelsEurope has been seriously misrepresented in statements included in Influence Map report “Big Oil’s Real Agenda on Climate Change”
Influence Map report “BigOil’s Real Agenda on Climate Change” published this Friday 22nd March 2019. This report, which explicitly refers to FuelsEurope, completely misrepresents the positions of the Association and the EU refining industry with regard to the free allocations for industrial sectors at risk of carbon leakage under the EU ETS, and for vehicle CO2 policy and electrification.
FuelsEurope, representing the EU refining industry with a membership of 40 companies, has supported the COP21 Paris Agreement from its inception and is engaged in the EU policy debate for the purpose of contributing to effectively addressing climate change.
With the allegation “FuelsEurope [...] weaken the impact of the EU ETS by pushing for greater immunity for industry installations through the allocation of free emission permits”, the report provides a serious misrepresentation.
John Cooper underlines “Free allocations of permits are an essential component of the EU ETS regulation: their purpose is to address the risk of carbon leakage, i.e. the relocation of industrial activities from the EU to other world regions with weaker or no carbon policies. Without free allocation, there would be a risk of net increase in carbon emissions at global level. FuelsEurope’s contribution on ETS aims at ensuring a truthful and accurate calculation of the level of free allocations, to minimise the risk of carbon leakage”.
With the allegation “FuelsEurope [...] lobbied against progressive policy to promote electric vehicles in the US and EU in 2017-2018”, the article provides another serious misrepresentation. John Cooper stresses “In fact, FuelsEurope never opposed the proposed CO2 emission standards for cars. It proposed a holistic assessment of the contribution of fuels, energy and vehicle manufacturing to the carbon emissions in light-duty transport. This would ensure a technology-inclusive approach, in the interest of finding the most effective and efficient technologies to reduce CO2 from transport”.
