New EU proposals which would mean that all greenhouse gas emission rights for businesses would be auctioned from 2018 will ruin the European industrial sector, says the chairman of the Dutch employers’ organisation in a letter to prime minister Jan Peter Balkenende.

‘As well as the direct economic consequences, I fear that this plan will destroy the European investment climate,’ said Bernard Weintjes of the VNO-NCW in the letter which was published on Thursday.
Weintjes says a better system is to set a sector norm for energy consumption and divide emissions rights among the companies in that sector. Energy-efficient companies will then have rights left over and can sell these to less-efficient firms, he says.