A CO₂ EPS would impose a limit on CO₂ emitted per kilowatt hour on power stations.

Environmentalists and certain industry stakeholders have been pushing for an EPS as an additional tool alongside the EU emissions trading scheme (ETS) to drive investment in low carbon technologies such as CO₂ capture and storage (CCS). At present, the CO₂ price delivered by the ETS is too low to trigger such investments.

On April 26^th, EU climate commissioner Connie Hedegaard told the European Parliament that an impact assessment of an EPS is on the blocks.

“We are initiating that work and I think that we could still do something at a common European level”, Hedegaard said.

Hedegaard has previously explained that an EPS would be possible through a planned 2015 revision of EU CCS legislation.

Supporters of an EPS have pushed for the forthcoming EU Industrial Emissions Directive to recognise that individual Member States are allowed to introduce this at a national level. The European Parliament environment committee will vote next week, Tuesday 4^th May, as part of the Directive’s 2^nd reading.