HOW ENERGY-INTENSIVE COMPANIES CASH IN ON THEIR POLLUTION AT TAXPAYERS’ EXPENSE

The report argues that the EU ETS's 'carbon leakage' rules have allowed heavy industry to generate over €25 billion in windfall profits from 2008 to 2015. It claims that free allocation of pollution permits has cost governments at least €143 billion in lost auctioning revenues, reduced incentives for efficiency, and lacks empirical evidence of actual carbon leakage. The document calls for phasing out free allocations and establishing a Just Transition Fund to support impacted communities.

• Energy-intensive companies in 20 European countries generated windfall profits exceeding €25 billion from the EU ETS between 2008 and 2015, with the majority of these profits occurring in Germany, the United Kingdom, Spain, France, and Italy.
• The free allocation of emission allowances resulted in governments issuing 11.8 billion free permits, leading to a loss of at least €143 billion in potential auctioning revenues between 2008 and 2015.
• The report asserts that the risk of 'carbon leakage'—where companies move production to countries with weaker climate policies—is diminishing due to the Paris Agreement and that studies have failed to find evidence that such leakage actually occurs.
• The current system of free pollution permits is identified as a barrier to emission reductions over the next 15 years because it lowers the incentive for companies to improve production efficiency.

APA

Carbon Market Watch (2016). HOW ENERGY-INTENSIVE COMPANIES CASH IN ON THEIR POLLUTION AT TAXPAYERS’ EXPENSE. https://carbonmarketwatch.org/publications/mythbuster-reload/

Chicago

Carbon Market Watch. HOW ENERGY-INTENSIVE COMPANIES CASH IN ON THEIR POLLUTION AT TAXPAYERS’ EXPENSE. 2016. https://carbonmarketwatch.org/publications/mythbuster-reload/.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=Carbon Market Watch |title=HOW ENERGY-INTENSIVE COMPANIES CASH IN ON THEIR POLLUTION AT TAXPAYERS’ EXPENSE |date=29 November 2016 |url=https://carbonmarketwatch.org/publications/mythbuster-reload/ |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{carbonmarketwatch2016how, author = {{Carbon Market Watch}}, title = {{HOW ENERGY-INTENSIVE COMPANIES CASH IN ON THEIR POLLUTION AT TAXPAYERS’ EXPENSE}}, institution = {Carbon Market Watch}, year = {2016}, month = nov, url = {https://carbonmarketwatch.org/publications/mythbuster-reload/}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }