NEWS
BUSINESS Carbon market after Brexit MARIA BURKE
EU negotiators finalising reforms to the Emis- sions Trading System (ETS) have agreed an amendment to protect the carbon market after Brexit. Policymakers are concerned that the carbon market could be flooded with surplus emission allowances if the UK leaves the EU without a Brexit deal in 2019. If the UK is no longer part of the ETS, 220m
UK-issued allowances could be offloaded onto the market between 1 January 2018 and 29 March 2019, causing market instability and driving down prices. The UK is the bloc’s second-largest emitter of greenhouse gases and its utilities among the largest buyers of allowances. At a meeting in October, representatives
from the European Commission, Parliament and Council of Ministers agreed that, from 1 January 2018, ‘Amendment 47’ would make
FOOD AND AGRICULTURE GM non-browning apples and salmon go on sale CATH O’DRISCOLL
GM non-browning apples were set to go on sale for the first time as C&I went to press in November 2017. Arctic apples, which don’t go brown on dropping or after being sliced, will be launched initially in the US. They have been engineered to contain apple genes that produce less of the enzyme polyphenol oxidase (PPO), which triggers the chemical reaction responsible for fruit browning on injury.
In 2018, an estimated 6% of new apple
tree plantings in the US will be for Arctic apple varieties - rising to Im US Arctic apple trees by 2020, said Haydn Parry, VP
of
Intrexon Corporation, speaking at the EFIB meeting in Brussels in October 2017. If successful, Haydn said the technology will also tap into a bumper market for cut apples – currently coated with preservatives to slow the browning process. ‘Currently, our Arctic apple orchards are
located in Washington State, with the majority being our Arctic Golden variety,’ according to Neal Carter, president of Intrexon subsidiary, Okanagen Specialty Fruits (OSF) in Canada. ‘We will be continuing to plant large volumes of trees, with the immediate focus being on varieties approved in the US, Arctic Golden, Arctic Granny and Arctic Fuji. Most of our orchards over the next few years will be in the US, but we are anticipating plantings in other countries in the future.’ The US is the second largest apple
producer in the world, behind only China, and grows apples on 322,000 acres of land with an annual crop value of around $4bn, according to the US Apple Association. ‘Although we are planting Arctic apples very rapidly, even by 2020 our non-browning apple varieties will represent a very small percentage of overall production,’ Carter said. UK consumers may have to wait a while longer for the apples as OSF says it has yet to apply for approval in any European country, though it is ‘not ruling out any possibilities’ in future.
The same technology, meanwhile, can also be used to produce non-browning avocados and pears, though work with other fruits is still at a preliminary stage, the company notes. The news follows reports of the first
sales of AquAdvantage salmon starting in Q2 2017, to customers in Canada. Made by another Intrexon subsidiary, AquaBounty Technologies, AquAdvantage sterile female Atlantic salmon can grow to market size in half the time as conventional salmon, and incorporate a gene from a Chinook salmon species. The fish can also be reared with a third less feed, and so have the potential to change the economics of fish farming, Parry added. He expects they will be especially valuable for new locally operated and more eco-friendly land based fish farms touted as an important source of future proteins. The AquAdvantage salmon was developed
in 1989 by scientists at Memorial University in Newfoundland, Canada. The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved AquaBounty Technologies’ application to sell AquAdvantage salmon to US consumers in November 2015 – a decade after this was lodged. However, an alert issued shortly afterwards bans its import until the FDA mandates labels for the GM product. ‘We are not able to sell our salmon in the US until the FDA Import Alert is lifted, which we hope will be resolved shortly,’ said a company spokesperson.
UK-issued allowances unusable by any ETS installation or aviation operator. However, the move has not been welcomed in all quarters. The International Emissions Trading As- sociation says an early UK exit from the ETS before 2020 would have severe implications for companies both in the EU and in the UK. To avoid potential carbon market disruptions, its preferred solution would be to agree on continued UK participation until at least the end of 2020. The UK could remain part of the system like Norway, which although not an EU member has companies that participate in the scheme.
The UK Emissions Trading Group wrote to
the UK government before the meeting warn- ing that Amendment 47 could have a profound impact on UK industry sectors participat- ing in the ETS. The need for Amendment 47 highlights the lack of UK communication with the EU’s institutions, and a lack of prepared-
ness on its future participation in the ETS or alternative measures. It said: ‘These commu- nication and policy gaps are deeply frustrat- ing …all these issues have the potential to destabilise the ETS allowance market for all installations across the EU.’ Louis Redshaw, of carbon market
consultancy Redshaw Advisors, describes Amendment 47 as ‘laudable [but] fraught with unintended consequences’. He foresees many challenges; for example, how will UK installa- tions know what to buy for compliance with 2018 emissions? The UK may well postpone auctions pending a decision, while UK allow- ances are likely to trade at a discount to the other EU27 allowances, he believes. The meeting also signed off an amend- ment, which extends the period for exempting international flights, with non-EU entry or departure, from ETS coverage to the end of 2023.
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