The European Commission recently introduced a draft of the revised EU ETS Directive which, among other things, proposes that 100 % of ETS revenues should be used for environmental measures. We welcome this idea but we’re also sceptical about how the ETS revenues are used in the Czech Republic. Therefore, we have prepared an analysis mapping the use of ETS revenues in Czech Republic and sent it to the European Commission as an input for the recent public consultation. The main conclusions are presented below.
Czech law states that 50 % of ETS revenues has to be used for environmental measures, which are enumerated in the ETS Directive. For 2021 the Czech government decided to cap this share at CZK 8 bn. (EUR 310 mil.), the rest of the revenues are considered income to the state budget. In case ETS revenues are higher than CZK 16 bn. per year, as predicted for 2021, there is potential for non-compliance with the ETS Directive, which requires at least 50 % of ETS revenues to be earmarked for climate-related projects.
Information about projects supported from ETS revenues is not publicly available, we assume that some of the means flows into the state budget and aren‘t used for environmental measures. Furthermore, ETS revenues dedicated to the Ministry of Industry and Trade, are used for continuous operating support for photovoltaic projects from the 2010s, which does not have any incentivising effect for the energy transformation. This support would have been paid anyway.
Dear Members of the European Parliament, In the next couple of weeks, various committees in the European Parliament will vote on their proposals to reform the EU Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD). In view of that, the co-signing organisations are calling for broadening the scope of the companies to be covered by the new rules by including all listed SMEs, as well as non-listed SMEs operating in high-risk sectors, subject to proportional rules.
In response to demands from investors and companies, the European Commission presented a proposal for a Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD) in February 2022. The Directive is also a response to France, Germany and Norway adopting legislation on due diligence and attempts to harmonize and introduce one European standard of responsible business conduct.
After several months of delay, today, the European Commission presented its proposal for a Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive in Brussels. The main objective of this new legislation is to integrate into European law international standards such as the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights - adopted globally over a decade ago - and standards developed and approved by the OECD.
