The government calls on companies to “general mobilization” in terms of energy sobriety and shakes the stick of a tax on “superprofits” in case of insufficient efforts. The goal is to make 10% energy savings.
Invited to BFM Business this Monday, Roland Lescure, Delegate Minister for Industry, indicates that he is thinking of “devices that allow us to reduce gas consumption without closing the factories.” He mentions in particular simple rules to apply like “put on a sweater” or even close the doors of air-conditioned places.
But if companies make insufficient efforts, what levers can be activated? “In September and early October we are going to implement instruments that allow us to reduce consumption in a slightly more restrictive way if we succeed,” says the minister, who was invited to the set of Good morning business.
Get inspired by the CO2 emission quota trading system
In concrete terms, the government could take over the trading system for CO2 emission quotas, which are capped at a level set by the European Union. Allowances are allocated free of charge to major industrial CO2 emitters based on their past emissions, but they can then trade them on the secondary market based on their needs.
Thus, companies could have a “right to consume gas” and those that have used less energy than expected could resell these unused rights to others that need more energy than their share.
“At this stage we are at the exploratory level, we have a few weeks to explore all available instruments,” said the Delegate Minister for Industry.
Source: BFM TV
