EU Climate Change Policy Research Articles

Comparison of sorbents based on Ca(OH)2 for removing HCl from flue gas

Due to EU climate change policy are coal-fired heating and power plant switching their fuel to biomass one. Emissions of flue gas from biomass are more environmentally friendly in general, but emissions of HCl and HF are increasing, and BAT limits are quite low for them. The possible solution is installation of technology DSI (Dry sorbent injection), especially with connection with bag house filter flue gas treatment. Powder of calcium hydroxide is one of suitable solution. Although the chemical composition is same, there are a huge differences in consumption between another types of Ca(OH)2. This article describes two most selling types of Ca(OH)2 in the Czech republic from the lime works in Štramberk (vz.1) and Čertovy schody (vz.2). This article is divided into laboratory part, where characterized both examples, and experimental part – operational test in the heating plant technology. The results of laboratory part were same for both examples in their thermal characteristic (thermogravimetry and DTA) and real density. Elementary and matter composition were quite similar, only sample 1 was a little bit contaminated by CaCO3 from original material. There was big difference in BET specific area – 14.8 m2·g-1 by sample 1 example and 41.273 m2·g-1 by sample 2. Sample 1 had the most of pore volume in pores with diameter 20-80 nm, the second one on had a more developed pore structure through the whole particle, Operational tests in same constructed CFB boilers were realized during two months in the same conditions. Control system of the heating plant mange cleaning technologies by emission limits, input fuel mixture was for both boilers same. Most of focused parameters were same, only data from DSI system were for each sorbent different. Efficiency of removing HF were for both sorbents same around 99%, for HCl around 85%. Consumption sample 1 was 80.63 m3 and 37.74 m3 of sample 2. When comparing the laboratory and operational parts, higher consumption of sample 2 can be caused by more developed porous structure and a larger specific BET surface. This may be due to the purity of the original material (CaCO3), which was also higher in sample 2, as well as the production technology of the sorbents.

Energy and Environmental Analysis of Renewable Energy Systems Focused on Biomass Technologies for Residential Applications: The Life Cycle Energy Analysis Approach

Sustainability and resilience are major challenges for the building sector in order to meet energy efficiency and low carbon emissions goals. Based on the defined and quantified targets of the EU climate change policy, Renewable Energy Systems (RESs) are among the top-priority measures for accomplishing the target of decarbonization in buildings. Nevertheless, the choice of the type of RES is not a one-dimensional problem, and the optimal combination may not be unique. The aim of this paper is the energy and environmental evaluation of renewable energy technologies with emphasis on biomass and solar thermal systems for heating applications in residential buildings. More specifically, and aiming at the maximum possible contribution of renewable energy sources in the total final energy consumption for the needs of zero energy buildings, different scenarios are presented based on a Life Cycle Energy Analysis (LCEA) approach. The methodology is based on quantifying the environmental impacts (midpoint analysis), as well as endpoint analysis, in order to define the impact on human health, ecosystem damage, and resource depletion. The LCEA has been conducted, supported by the SimaPro tool, ensuring the environmental impact assessment result. A combination of RES technologies based on solar and biomass are examined and compared to conventional fossil fuel heating systems according to technical, energy, and environmental criteria. Finally, the energy system technologies were compared in correlation to a building’s thermal insulation level. The first set of simulations fulfilled the minimum thermal insulation requirements, according to the national energy performance regulation, whilst the second set of simulations was based on increased levels of insulation. The point of this analysis was to correlate the impact of thermal insulation to RES technologies’ contribution. The results determined that the best available energy solution, focusing on technical and environmental criteria, is the combination of biomass and solar thermal systems for covering the heating processes in residential buildings. More specifically, the combined biomass–solar system has a lower overall environmental impact, due to the reduction in gaseous pollutant emissions, as well as the reduction in the amount of used fuel. The reduction in the total environmental impact amounts to a percentage of approximately 43%.

Short-term heat effects and effect modification by ambient air pollution on cardiovascular and respiratory mortality across 148 cities from 13 European countries – Results of the EXHAUSTION project

Background and Aim: Epidemiological evidence on the potential interactive effects of high air temperature and air pollution on cause-specific mortality remains inconclusive and limited to selected locations. We investigated the effects of temperature on cardiovascular and respiratory mortality and its effect modification by particulate matter with a diameter ≤ 2.5 µm [PM₂.₅] and ozone [O₃] during summer months (May-September) in 148 cities across 13 European countries. Methods: For these cities, we obtained daily counts of cardiovascular and respiratory mortality and daily exposure data between 2000 and 2018. We used location-specific confounder-adjusted Quasi-Poisson regression with a tensor product between air temperature and the air pollutant. We extracted temperature estimates at low, medium, and high levels of pollutants defined as the 5th, 50th, and 95th percentile of location-specific air pollutant concentrations. A random-effects multilevel meta-analytical model was used to derive the country-specific and overall estimates. Results: High summer temperatures were associated with increased cardiovascular and respiratory mortality. We further observed modification of the heat effects by elevated levels of PM₂.₅ and O₃ in most locations, with stronger effects for respiratory than cardiovascular mortality. For example, the percent increase in respiratory mortality per increase in the 2-day average summer temperature from the 75th to the 99th percentile was 9.2% (95% Confidence Interval [CI] 8.9-9.4), 13.0% (95% CI 12.8, 13.2), and 19.8% (95% CI 19.5, 20.2) at low, medium, and high levels of PM₂.₅, respectively. Conclusion: We observed significant modification of the heat effects by elevated levels of PM₂.₅ and O₃ leading to an increased risk of cardiovascular and respiratory mortality. With both temperature and air pollutant concentrations foreseen to increase considering climate change, targeted adaptation and mitigation measures are crucial to enhance resilience and sustainable development in alignment with EU climate change policies. Keywords: Air temperature, air pollution, cause-specific mortality, effect modification, Europe

Nature-Based Solutions in Coastal and Estuarine Areas of Europe

Momentum for sustainable and climate resilience solutions for coastal protection are growing globally given the pressing need to prevent further loss of biodiversity and ecosystems while meeting the climate change adaptation and mitigation goals. Nature-Based Solutions (NbS) represent an opportunity to align environmental and resilience goals, at a time of strained budgets in a global context and when short-term needs may run counter to long-term goals. In Europe, NbS fit the mandates of major EU environmental and climate change policies by restoring biodiversity and enhancing climate-resilience and carbon sequestration. Previous studies have compiled scientific evidence about hydro-meteorological hazards for the use of NbS. However, their implementation at scale is still lacking. As the knowledge and experience with NbS for adaptation to natural hazards and climate change increases, it becomes more important to draw lessons learned and insights for replicating and scaling up NbS, especially in coastal areas where their implementation is still limited compared to other environments. This study analyzed NbS case studies across European coastal and estuarine areas to draw key lessons, understand better the current status of implementation, and identify key challenges and gaps. From a total of 59 NbS case studies associated with flooding, erosion and biodiversity loss, results show an increase in NbS implementation since 1990s, but most rapidly between 2005 and 2015. Most of the case studies are hybrid solutions employing wetlands, predominantly located in the United Kingdom (UK) and the Netherlands. Funding of NbS is largely from public sources, and rarely come from a single or a private source. Three-quarters of the case studies reported monitoring activities, but more than half did not disclose quantitative results related to effectiveness against flooding and/or erosion. The need to improve coastal defenses was indicated as the main motivation for NbS implementation over traditional structures, while sustainability was the most mentioned additional reason. Although a variety of co-benefits and lessons learned was identified, clearer descriptions and enhanced details of such information are required. There is a need for tools and strategies to expand knowledge sharing of lessons learned to enable further replication of successful cases in other areas.

EU Carbon Diplomacy: Assessing Hydrogen Security and Policy Impact in Australia and Germany

Hydrogen is fast becoming a new international “super fuel” to accelerate global climate change ambitions. This paper has two inter-weaving themes. Contextually, it focuses on the potential impact of the EU’s new Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) on fossil fuel-generated as opposed to green hydrogen imports. The CBAM, as a transnational carbon adjustment mechanism, has the potential to impact international trade in energy. It seeks both a level playing field between imports and EU internal markets (subject to ambitious EU climate change policies), and to encourage emissions reduction laggards through its “carbon diplomacy”. Countries without a price on carbon will be charged for embodied carbon in their supply chains when they export to the EU. Empirically, we focus on two hydrogen export/import case studies: Australia as a non-EU state with ambitions to export hydrogen, and Germany as an EU Member State reliant on energy imports. Energy security is central to energy trade debates but needs to be conceptualized beyond supply and demand economics to include geopolitics, just transitions and the impacts of border carbon taxes and EU carbon diplomacy. Accordingly, we apply and further develop a seven-dimension energy security-justice framework to the examples of brown, blue and green hydrogen export/import hydrogen operations, with varying carbon-intensity supply chains, in Australia and Germany. Applying the framework, we identify potential impact—risks and opportunities—associated with identified brown, blue and green hydrogen export/import projects in the two countries. This research contributes to the emerging fields of international hydrogen trade, supply chains, and international carbon diplomacy and develops a potentially useful seven-dimension energy security-justice framework for energy researchers and policy analysts.

PRIORITIES AND OPPORTUNITIES OF THE EUROPEAN GREEN DEAL IN THE FRAMEWORK OF UKRAINE'S INTERNATIONAL COMMITMENTS

An assessment of the priorities of the new EU climate change policy until 2050 was made and on this basis the prospects of Ukraine's climate policy were analyzed taking into account the European Green Deal for adaptation to climate change in Ukraine.

Transformation of coal-fired power plants on steam-gas power plants

Currently in the EU there are bigger tendencies to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide and phasing out of coal mining and combustion. There are some possibilities to transform current coal-fired power plant to steam-gas one. The advantages of steam-gas power plant are lower amount of emissions and higher efficiency unlike coal-fired one and stability of energy production unlike wind and solar one. The article focuses on principle, description and ad-vantages of steam-gas power plant. It also mentions and compares methods of transformation current coal-fired power plant to steam-gas one. Finally, the possible expansion of these power plant in the Czech Republic is discussed, with regard to economic aspects and EU cli-mate change policy.

EU Climate Policy under the Paris Agreement

Abstract The European Union has long sought to play a leadership role in the international response to climate change. As part of the “European Green Deal”, it announced new wide-ranging plans to step up its ambition, and in December 2020 updated its mitigation target under the Paris Agreement to an at-least 55 per cent reduction by 2030 compared to the 1990 level. In this article, I provide a legal analysis of the new EU climate change policy as outlined in the European Commission’s Stepping Up Europe’s 2030 Climate Ambition (September 2020) in light of the Paris Agreement itself and other norms of international environmental law. I find that the European Union provides a degree of leadership in the implementation of the Paris Agreement, but that there are also areas of concern, in particular the missing notification of member states’ individual emission levels as part of a joint ndc under Article 4 of the Paris Agreement.

Comparative Analysis of UK and Lithuanian Political Institutional Communicative Climate Change Discourses

The aim of this paper is to analyse the ways how climate change related risks are being constructed in political institutional discourses. We draw upon the political communicative texts, i.e. texts prepared by governmental authorities, from the pre- and post-Paris agreement period, i.e. 2015–2016. Our empirical analysis is guided by the relational theory of risk, theory of discursive institutionalism, critical discourse analysis, notions of interdiscursivity and interpretive repertoires. The main research questions are the following: What are the threats typically associated with climate change (source of risk)?; What are the objects-at-risk typically spoken of in political communicative discourses?; How are the relations of the risk source and object-at-risk discursively constructed (e.g. vulnerability, resilience, etc.)?; What is the overall ‘repertoire’ of typical climate change related risks as discursively constructed in political communicative texts? To answer the research questions, Lithuania and United Kingdom are taken for cross-national comparison. UK is regarded as a leader in international and domestic climate change policy, whereas climate change policies are treated instrumentally in Lithuania. Both Lithuania and UK, as EU member states, follow the general EU climate change policy. Yet because of differences in public attitudes and other socio-political contexts, the effectiveness of climate change policies is different. Contrasting the two member states and looking for underlying discursive practices, that serve as grounds for climate action, bring new scientific insights. The analysis of the sampled texts is conducted using NVivo.

Paris Anlaşmasına Giden Süreçte AB İklim Değişikliği ve Çevre Politikaları

Paris Anlaşmasına Giden Süreçte AB İklim Değişikliği ve Çevre Politikaları

The Land Sector in the 2030 EU Climate Change Policy Framework: a Look At The Future

Under the recently adopted 2030 EU climate change policy framework, land use, land use change and forestry (lulucf) will for the first time contribute to the EU’s economy wide emission reduction target. This article looks at the history of the lulucf Regulation, analysing its contents in light of the history of international and regional efforts to regulate emissions and removals in this specific sector. It highlights the challenges associated with regulating this specific sector and reviews the regulation, assessing how well it has addressed these challenges.

EU Climate Change Policy and its member-states’ participation

EU는 글로벌 기후변화 문제에 관련된 아젠다를 선도하고 있다. EU는 2008년에 ‘2020 기후·에너지 패키지(2020 Climate and Energy Package)’를 채택하였고, 본 계획에서 2020년까지 1990년 대비 온실가스 배출 20% 감축, 최종에너지 소비에서 신재생에너지 비중 20%로 확대, 에너지 효율 20% 증대 등 3가지 ‘20-20-20 목표’를 설정하였다. 실제로 일부 회원국은 이미 최종에너지 소비에서 신재생에너지 비중을 20% 이상으로 확대하였다. 또한 2014년에 EU는 1990년 대비 22.9%의 온실가스 배출을 감축하였다. 이와 같이 EU는 기후변화에 관련된 대응에서 전 세계 국가에 모범을 보이고 있다. EU 2020 계획의 목표가 비교적 성공적으로 달성되었지만, 각 회원국 별 상황은 대단히 상이하였다. EU 회원국 중 12개국은 2005년과 2014년 기간 동안에 신재생에너지 사용비중을 두 배로 증가시켰고, 9개국은 각 회원국의 2020 목표를 이미 달성하였다. 반면에 네덜란드, 영국, 아일랜드, 프랑스는 각 국의 신재생에너지 확대목표에 훨씬 못 미치는 결과를 보이고 있다. EU회원국의 신재생에너지 이용 비중은, 신재생에너지가 전체 에너지 소비에서 52.6%를 차지하고 있는 스웨덴과 4.5%에 불과한 룩셈부르크처럼 회원국 간 상황이 매우 상이하다. EU 회원국 내에서 에너지원별 소비규모에서 차이가 발생하고 있는 이유는 EU차원에서 신재생에너지 이용확대와 탄소배출 감소라는 큰 틀만을 규정했기 때문이다. 특히 태양광에너지의 경우, 태양광에너지가 많이 활용되는 국가는 지중해 지역에 위치한 경우가 많았다. 이는 지리적으로 비교적 골고루 분포되고 있는 풍력발전과는 차이가 있는 상황이었다. 실제 EU의 정책이 이루어지는 공간이 개별 회원국임을 감안하면 개별 회원국 차원에서 EU의 기후변화 정책이 어떻게 실현되었고, 각 회원국 별로 어떠한 차이를 보이고 있는가에 대한 검토는 중요한 과제라고 볼 수 있다. 아울러 EU차원의 신재생에너지 확대와 기후변화 대응정책이 진행되는 가운데 발생하고 있는 문제점을 이해하는 것 역시 EU 기후변화 정책의 진행 상황을 이해하는데 중요하다. 이와 같은 연구는, 한국이 시행착오를 피하면서 파리협약이후 탄소배출을 자발적으로 감축해야 하는 한국의 현실에 맞는 한국형 기후변화 정책과 에너지 믹스가 창출되는데 기여할 것이다.The EU has pursued international leadership on climate change. The EU adopted the ‘2020 Climate and Energy Package’ in 2008. Until 2020 it will reduce 20% of greenhouse gas emissions by 2020, 20% of final energy consumption. And it will increase energy efficiency by 20%. Indeed, some of its member states have already increased the share of renewable energy in final energy consumption by more than 20%. In addition, in 2014, the EU reduced its greenhouse gas emissions by 22.9%. With its action for climate change, the EU is becoming a role model for the rest of the World. Although ‘2020 Climate and Energy Package’ has achieved its goal successfully, the conflict of interests between community-level policy and member-state level policy exists. Twelve EU member states have doubled their share of renewable energy use from 2005 to 2014. And nine member-states have already achieved their 2020 targets. The Netherlands, the United Kingdom, Ireland and France, on the other hand, are far less than the targets for expanding renewable energy. The share of renewable energy in EU member states is very different between member countries. In Sweden, renewable energy accounts for 52.6% of total energy consumption while in Luxembourg, renewable energy accounts for only 4.5% of total energy consumption. The reason for the difference in energy consumption by energy source within the EU member states is that the EU has published guidelines only for the expansion of renewable energy use and the reduction of CO 2 emissions. Especially, in the case of solar energy, the countries where the solar energy use is developed are often located in the Mediterranean region. This is in contrast to wind power generation, which is relatively evenly distributed geographically. The actual implementation of EU policy on Climate change takes place in individual member-states. It is important to examine how the EU policy on Climate change is implemented in its member-states and to examine the difference of policy implementation between member-states. It is also important to understand the problems occurred through the implementation of EU policy on Climate change and EU’s expansion of renewable energy use. This study will contribute to the development of policy on Climate change and the optimization of energy mix for Korea which has to plan voluntary reduction of CO 2 emissions after the Paris Agreement.

Should practices of non-governmental actors in climate policy be adopted across the board in EU policies?

The ‘Europe 2020’ strategy – the document representing the supranational European development policy agenda – introduced two main innovations for the coordination of climate change issues within the EU: quantified target setting and a new governance framework – the “European Semester.” To design and assess the effectiveness of the new approach as regards EU climate change policy, multilevel, multi‐stakeholder and integrated (across policy sectors) coordination mechanisms have been elaborated. In this new “hybrid governance” model, there is communication between the formal (e.g., laws, authorities, official rules, official standards) and the informal institutions (e.g., codes of conduct, shared values, behavioral norms, belief systems) as partners to achieve common goals. Hybrid governance represents evolution in other policy areas as well. The article presents the evolution of “hybrid governance” in the human resourcedevelopment policy of the EU, based on the history of the European Social Fund’s (ESF) management. The analytical focus is on the processes strengthening partnership – rather than on outcomes – in order to capture the similarities and differences in ESF and climate change policy-making. The article argues that the first period of the ESF management served as a good methodological example for climate change management design. While in the first decade of the new millennium similar approaches in consultation and involvement were introduced in both policy areas, in the recent years there have been differences in the implementation of these approaches. The conclusion of the article argues that the two policy areas should cooperateclosely together in the further elaboration of partnership management solutions in order to increase the efficacy of consultations. The mutual learning between them can be useful in other policy areas as well. In the framework of European citizens' initiative (Initiative) Internet-basedsolutions have made it possible for EU citizens to be directly associated with the EU administration. Based on the experience of the first years of the Initiative, social and climate policy issues are the main concerns of EU citizens. As a consequence of the Initiative, further development is expected in the hybrid governance of the two examined areas.

Experimental analysis of “NAC-wall” for hybrid ventilation mode

Reducing the energy demand for residential cooling systems is crucial in order to limit CO2 emissions, consistently with the EU climate change policy. Within this context, solar DEC (Desiccant, Evaporative Cooling) technologies can represent a valid answer to the energy saving targets. This experimental analysis aims to present the last results of a scientific campaign on a solar DEC prototype, named NAC-wall (Natural Air Conditioning), operating with a hybrid ventilation mode. Heat and mass transfer happens in an innovative dehumidification component, a finned coil coated with a layer of Zeolite SAPO-34, presenting very low pressure drops. Different tests have been performed in the flow regime Reynolds 750–3500 to analyze dehumidification effectiveness. For a better comparison between each test, a preliminary complete regeneration of the adsorbent mean have been always carried out with hot water circulation, produced by a solar thermal system. A theoretical optimized working cycle, i.e. one regeneration stage followed by one adsorption stage, has been studied starting from the experimental results and its performance has been compared with the optimized natural ventilation operating case, reported in a previous work.

Analysis of Current Trends and a First Assessment of the New Package

With three waves of internal energy market legislation already adopted and a fourth just tabled, a key question is “do we have an institutional structure that can effectively deliver the ambitious goals of the EU energy and climate change policy?”. To answer this question, the chapter employs a benchmark comparison, using general EU competition law as a benchmark for an effectively enforced EU policy. It compares the current as well as the emerging institutional structure of EU energy market regulation with that of EU competition law, to assess the extent to which there is a ‘competition law-ization’ of energy market institutions. The chapter finds that the Third Package of 2009 created an institutional structure that shares a number of features with competition law, hence laying the grounds for an effective institutional structure. The new ‘Winter’ package unveiled in November 2016 builds on the institutional acquis. However, there are also new trends – in particular a shift to relying on tools that require more Member State co-operation with the Commission. This trend might limit the effectiveness of competition law-ization unless such co-operation concerns aspects that are complementary to the core subject matter of competition law.

The more the merrier? Assessing the impact of enlargement on EU performance in energy and climate change policies

ABSTRACTThis article examines the impact of enlargement on European Union performance in energy and climate change policies. It looks at process-driven performance, focusing on agenda-setting, negotiation dynamics and institutional change – as well as outcome-driven performance, looking at the ambitiousness of policy objectives and their implementation. The empirical analysis is based on qualitative, comparative case studies of EU climate change and energy security policies. The article shows that enlargement has had a nuanced but contrasted impact on the two areas. It also points to the recent assertiveness of Central and Eastern European Countries in both energy security and climate policy.

Join the Club: How the Domestic NGO Sector Induces Participation in the Covenant of Mayors Program

ABSTRACTHow does strength of domestic NGOs influence participation in the Covenants of Mayors program? Launched by the European Commission in 2008, this program invites local and regional authorities to voluntarily commit to implementing EU climate change and energy policies. We focus on the transitional countries of Eastern Europe and Eurasia to examine whether the strength of their domestic NGOs correlates with cities’ decisions to participate in this transnational program. To operationalize NGO strength, we suggest thinking of it as a stock variable that cumulates over time, instead of a single-year, flow variable. With country year as the unit of analysis, we examine the percentage of urban population covered by the Covenant across a panel of 26 transitional economies for the period 2008–2014. We find that the key variable of interest, cumulative NGO strength, is a statistically significant predictor of program participation, even after controlling for domestic and international factors, including the salience of international NGOs and the years since the country began the formal process to join the European Union.

Stuck in Brussels: Should transport policy be determined at EU level?

Transport policy is increasingly determined at EU level, with national, regional and local governments heavily constrained by a supranational regulatory framework. This one-size-fits-all approach has meant regulations have frequently been maladapted to local conditions, and as a result have imposed very large costs on individuals and businesses. The European Commission has wasted vast sums on ‘white-elephant’ transport projects where the costs have outweighed the benefits. EU climate change policies have imposed huge costs on the transport sector for little benefit. The biofuels requirement in petrol and diesel is costing taxpayers and consumers across the EU an estimated €20 billion a year, and harms the poor in developing countries by inflating food prices and drives deforestation by increasing the demand for products, such as palm oil. EU directives effectively prohibit full vertical integration on railways. The resulting industry fragmentation is thought to have increased costs by approximately £1.5 billion a year in the UK alone, pushing up taxpayer subsidies. A similarly flawed model is now being imposed on seaports. Rather than the top-down structures imposed by the EU, regulatory institutions should be free to evolve from the bottom up, their scale depending on market conditions rather than political diktat.

Geomapping methodology for the GeoCluster Mapping Tool to assess deployment potential of technologies for energy efficiency in buildings

Energy efficiency in buildings will play a major role in responding to EU climate change and energy-saving policies, if sustainable actions are to be trigged at large scale involving EU, all Member States and their regional and local authorities.The objective of this paper is to explain the Geocluster methodology developed within the European “GE2O” project aimed at developing a general framework for the assessment of the effectiveness of building technologies for energy efficiency. The research aimed to locate similarities across the EU countries by combining parameters and indicators structures in homogeneous layers and sub-layers (i.e. building technology, context, policies and regulations, climatic conditions, social aspects) in order to develop a repository to be used as source of data for a dynamic geo-database web service. The assessment has been performed on two selected technologies, thermal insulation for envelope retrofitting and solar cooling, respectively, for two pilot areas: Benelux and Mediterranean arc. The final goal was to create an Open Source geo-portal named GeoCluster Mapping Tool, based on international standards in the GIS domain, which implements the methodology developed and becomes a decision-making tool for private or public parties.

Discussing Measures to Address the Risk of Carbon Leakage in EU Climate Change Policy: Coordinating Taxation, Emission Trading and State Aid

Since January 2005, European energy-intensive sectors are double regulated. Their energy consumption is covered both by the Energy Taxation Directive and the European Union Emission Trading Scheme Directive. To address the risk of carbon leakage and competitiveness loss following from EU climate change policy different State aid regimes are available to deal with direct and indirect emission costs. This paper assesses the coherence of this regulatory overlap and performs a critical analysis of its effects. Following this analysis it is concluded that some changes to EU climate change regimes are required to improve their environmental impact and cost-efficiency. The first-best option seems to be an obligatory EU-wide exemption from national energy taxation (both regarding energy and emissions tax components) for all sectors covered by the EU ETS together with an EU-wide energy tax, which would replace the previous national ones. The ETS dilemma could then be addressed by charging a higher tax rate on the power sector.