EU plans to charge for pollution rights ruffle feathers

0 Comments | AFP, January, 2008

BRUSSELS (AFP) — EU plans to make companies pay for the right to pollute have come under fierce fire from governments and industry, warning they could force business and jobs to leave Europe.

As part of a broad strategy for fighting climate change, the European Commission is to unveil plans on Wednesday to make companies pay for tradeable carbon emissions quotas.

The quotas are the cornerstone of the European Union's emissions trading scheme, under which nearly 12,000 energy-intensive plants can buy or sell emissions credits, which EU governments currently hand out for free.

However, Europe's businesses are up in arms about the plans to make them pay for what are in effect permits to pollute, and European leaders are taking note, fearful of the economic...