Shell Wants Refiners Exempt from EU CO2 Cap Plan

Reuters
Tuesday, July 1, 2008

MADRID - Royal Dutch Shell Plc wants oil refiners to be given CO2 emission permits for free in the next phase of the European Union’s CO2 emissions trading scheme but is happy for most other sectors to be charged.

Chief Executive Jeroen van der Veer told the World Petroleum Congress that the crude refining, chemicals and paper industries should be exempt from proposals to charge businesses for emitting CO2, because they would otherwise be at a disadvantage against rivals in the US and Asia.

However, he supports the idea of other sectors being charged as a means to fight climate change.

Van der Veer was also sceptical of the EU proposal, subject to other regions making commitments on CO2 cuts, to raise its target for cutting CO2 emissions to 30 percent by 2020, from the current target of 20 percent by that date.

He said the plan risked Europe getting stuck “half-way between a daydream and a nightmare”. (Reporting by Tom Bergin; Editing by Quentin Bryar)
SOURCE: Reuters