Nikos Mantzaris participated in the event “ETS in the power sector: Past performance and opportunities for revision“, on November 29, 2021, analyzing the interplay between the EU Emissions Trading System (ETS) with the Greek energy policy.
In the event, coordinated by Francisco Ferreira of ZERO, Maria Pedroso Ferreira of the Portuguese electricity company EDP, Domien Vangenechten of E3G and Sam Van den Plas of Carbon Market Watch participated as well.
In his presentation, Nikos Mantzaris described in detail how the failure of PPC and the Greek government to attain an exemption for free emission allowances for lignite plants during the previous revision of the ETS (2015-2018), marked the beginning of the end for the Greek lignite industry. He also explained how this development in combination with the rise in CO2 emission allowance prices, which resulted from the other changes in the ETS, led to a rapid decline in lignite production as well as the political decision to phase out coal by 2028. After quantitatively describing the climate benefits from the reduction of lignite production, he presented the public revenues of Greece from the auction of emission allowances in the period 2013-2021, as well as their allocation to various uses.
This was followed by a discussion and answers to questions about a series of issues, such as ways to reduce emissions from the energy-intensive industry, the transition to renewable energy sources and more.
The event was part of a series of talks organized as part of the LIFE ETX project involving 10 environmental organizations and think tanks from across Europe, including the Green Tank. The purpose of these meetings is to exchange knowledge and best practices on European and national coal price policies.
More information are available here.
