Carbon emissions in the power sector

N°42  November 2013 THE POWER SECTOR IN PHASE 2 OF THE EU ETS: FEWER CO EMISSIONS BUT JUST AS MUCH COAL 2 1 2Nicolas Berghmans and Emilie Alberola Since 2005, 1,453 power and combined heat and power (CHP) generation plants have participated in the European Union Emission Trading Scheme, or EU ETS, which requires them to comply with an annual CO emission cap set by the European Commission. Thermal power plants that use coal (bituminous coal, 2 lignite, and other kinds of coal) and natural gas as their primary fuel jointly account for 86% of the generation capacity included in the EU ETS. There are twice as many gas-fired power plants as coal-fired ones, with 671 gas-fired power plants compared with 352 coal-fired ones. The power sector saw a decrease in its CO emissions by 186 Mt during Phase 2 (2008-2012), equal to a 2 14.2% fall from 1,306 Mt in 2007 – the last year of Phase 1 – to 1,120 Mt in 2012. The reduction differs depending on the type of power plant and the fuel used:  Plants that generate only electricity reduced their CO emissions more significantly than CHP plants. 2  Gas and oil-fired power plants experienced the sharpest decline in their CO emissions, which fell by 2 34% and 30% respectively between 2008 and 2012: CO emissions from gas-fired power plants fell 2 from 273 to 175 MtCO , while emissions from oil-fired power plants fell from 50 to 37 MtCO .