Multi-Country Sectoral Approaches: Potential for Reducing Competitiveness and Leakage Impacts in Austria's Energy-intensive Industries

The detailed analysis of the energy-intensive sectors in Austria starts with reference to the cost and decision-making drivers, and then considers how climate change policies and measures could affect them relative to other drivers faced by the industries. The report assesses carbon costs relative to financial indicators for the Austrian cement, steel and paper and pulp sectors. It finds no compelling evidence that the EU ETS has already had an impact on competitiveness and leakage in the sectors analysed. As carbon costs to European producers may increase after 2012 due to changes in the design of the EU ETS, a reduction in competitiveness and leakage could however be expected, with a likely first impact being reductions in investment in new capacity (noting that such investments have already been limited in the EU over the past decade). The report asks how effective sectoral approaches, agreements and measures (SAAMs) might be in reducing competitiveness and leakage impacts. Six possible variants are described from a wide range of types, and their impacts assessed.