In his column earlier
this week, Dr John Constable, the GWPF's energy editor, pointed out
that the EU Commission’s recent study of the effect of climate and other
policies on international competitiveness contained a substantive
error. The report claimed that annual levies on UK consumers in 2016 for
subsidies to renewable electricity were €1.57 billion, whereas the
correct figure is closer to €7 billion.
The EU Commission’s consultants have confirmed the mistake in writing to Dr Constable:
“You are correct that the largest part of the other subsidies was from the Renewables Obligation and that these were not allocated to ‘financed by end users’ as they should have been. Thank you for spotting this error, we are correcting the figures and expect a revised report to be online soon."
Correcting
this error will certainly have significant consequences for all
sections of the report relying on calculations of Renewable Energy
support costs for electricity consumers in 2016. Because of its
magnitude it is likely to have consequences for the study’s estimates of
the competitiveness impact on the EU28 overall as compared to the G20.
This
is impact is already estimated to be very significant, with both
domestic and industrial electricity prices being very substantially
above those in the G20, with EU domestic prices being more than double
those in the G20 and industrial prices approximately 50% higher.
Dr Constable said:
"The study is an important and major statement on the economic consequences of the EU’s energy and climate policies, and it is crucial that such work is as accurate as possible."
Notes for Editors
1. Dr Constable’s article can be read here: https://www.thegwpf.com/
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