Possible industry opt-outs from auctioning as of 2013

The refining, cement and glass industries may get help dealing with the cost of meeting European climate targets to safeguard their global competitiveness, a draft European Commission report showed. Steel and aluminium appear to be the most at risk, figures seen by Reuters on Thursday showed, confirming a report last year on risks to the two sectors.
Heavy industries in Europe and the United States are battling hard to avoid paying for permits to emit carbon dioxide, saying the added cost will harm their ability to compete with overseas rivals, for example in India and China.
* EU executive lists sectors that may lose competitive edge
* Highest risk seen for metals, refining, glass, cement
* Lowest risk seen for food, timber and plaster

But environmentalists say politicians risk pushing the planet further towards catastrophe by making too many concessions to big polluters.
They also warn that the EU risks undermining its main tool for curbing climate warming emissions, the Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) by handing windfall profits to industry.
The Commission's list was based on data from the EU's 27 governments, and that had given industry ample opportunity to massage the figures, said campaigner Sanjeev Kumar of WWF.
"Should we trust governments to give accurate data? We've been conned before," he added. "There have been cartel cases in European cement and steel recently, so how can you trust the trade data from those markets?"

COST INCREASES
The European Union agreed last year to cut CO2 emissions to a fifth below 1990 levels by 2020, seeking to lead the world in combating climate change and the floods, drought and famine it is expected to bring.
But it deferred a decision on which industries should be exempted from buying permits from 2013 under the ETS.
A draft report on potential exemptions was circulated on Wednesday at a meeting between the European Commission, the 27 EU nations and representatives of industry and environmental groups.
Sectors such as aluminium that face an increase in costs of over 5 percent and have a high "trade exposure" are deemed at risk from overseas competition and will probably receive free permits to pollute between 2013 and 2020.
Aluminium, with a projected cost increase of 11.8 percent was deemed as one of the sectors most at risk, followed by steel with costs up 11.3 percent.

Campaigner Tomas Wyns at Climate Action Network challenged the Commission's methodology, and said it should check its calculations.
"The Commission is treating big oil very kindly," he added. "It is handing out hundreds of millions of euros to some sectors for free."

A Commission spokeswoman said the list was preliminary and would have no impact on EU carbon dioxide emissions, which are controlled by the carbon market's steadily-reducing cap.
The main impact of free permits will be reducing the amount of money generated by the ETS, much of which is earmarked for green technology and to help poor regions like Africa deal with the consequences of climate change.