(IAN) EMISSIONS TRADING SCHEME - CONSPIRACY THEORY

The UK Emissions Trading Scheme (UK ETS) replaced the UK’s participation in the European Union Emissions Trading Scheme (EU ETS) on 1 January 2021.

Emissions trading schemes usually work on the ‘cap and trade’ principle, where a cap is set on the total amount of certain greenhouse gases that can be emitted by sectors covered by the scheme.

This limits the total amount of carbon that can be emitted and, as it decreases over time, will make a significant contribution to how the UK meets our Net Zero 2050 target and other legally binding carbon reduction commitments - link

In a nutshell, The Emissions Trading Scheme is a system that applies an additional cost to fossil-based emissions released by the incineration process.

With its extension into the waste incineration sector starting in 2026, ETS will bring significant additional costs to businesses via their waste management contractors and the public via increased Council Tax charges as it works to bring about this reduction in emissions from the incineration of waste. These additional costs will be levied as higher gate fees – or in simple terms – the price per tonne a contractor or a local council pays to burn waste.

With its introduction, gate fees for general waste going to EfW incinerators will significantly increase and will affect everyone in the UK directly or indirectly – no ifs and no buts.

This one-off price hiking event does also pose a question pertaining to the economies of scale within the waste industry – i.e. what’s to stop the major players within the UK waste sector, most of whom operate waste to energy incinerators, systematically eliminating and/or taking over the country’s smaller private and family-owned waste management companies by pricing them out of the market under the cover of fair trade?

By offering highly subsidised or discounted put-or-pay contracts to other large waste operators (who operate their own waste to energy facilities) based upon input volume and therefore and crucially, not to the smaller operators, the majors will be able to simultaneously either force the smaller operators to raise their prices to their customers thus making them uncompetitive or reduce the profitability of the smaller operators who keep try to keep prices down/competitive.

Never – conspiracy theory? surely not? more like this (EfW) - link