Misaligned energy policies raise costs, cause wastage, undoing EU carbon market goals

Brussels

THE European Union's carbon market, designed to save the environment, is being undercut by a patchwork of national subsidies for renewables and misaligned energy policies that have helped cut in half the volume of power being traded.

The bloc wasted a quarter of the US$550 billion spent on renewable energy, according to analysis by consulting firm Bain & Co presented last month at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.