The environmental, health and safety implications of the EU Emissions Trading Scheme (EU ETS) in Ireland

Abstract

The overall aim of this dissertation was to establish if the European Union Emissions Trading Scheme had been successful in reducing Carbon Dioxide emissions in Ireland since the scheme came into force on 1st January 2005. In addition, this study also identifies whether any notable benefits have being experienced in issues related to Environmental, Health and Safety management within Organisations who are obliged to participate in the scheme. All participating companies in the scheme had to have a report submitted to the EPA in March 2006 detailing their progression since the scheme began. This information was submitted to the European Commission later in the year and the Commission published a report. The report detailed the success of emission reduction attempts in all EU participating companies. From this it could be seen that Ireland did not manage to reduce emissions as a whole, but that approximately half of participating companies did reduce emissions. This study also examines how the scheme has been managed at installation level and whether formal Management Systems enhance the chances of reducing of emissions. The results indicate that those companies managing the scheme within some kind of management systems had overall better success in operating within their quota of allowances in Carbon Dioxide. The results also identified problems experienced by Companies and illustrated some dissatisfaction with the scheme. Finally, this study sought to establish if there have been any additional EHS benefits observed by the Companies that are part of the scheme. Results illustrated a variety of benefits for the environment and for Health and Safety, but showed that the scheme had little effect on Quality.