Four governments offer early support for EU carbon market reforms

France, Italy, Denmark and Sweden back plans to reduce the amount of permits in the EU carbon market to drive deeper CO2 cuts, supporting one of the key reforms proposed by the EC, EU documents show. But EU governments, which agreed to make the 27-nation bloc neutral in terms of greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, appeared less supportive of the Commission proposal to add transport and buildings to the emissions trading market. The Commission published on Thursday EU member countries’ responses to a consultation on the policy, along with hundreds of other responses from companies, lobby groups, NGOs and citizens. The emissions trading system (ETS) is the EU’s main policy for cutting greenhouse gas emissions, requiring power plants, factories and airlines operating European flights to buy increasingly costly CO2 permits when they pollute.<br/>