The EU Referendum blog argues that the EU's Emissions Trading Scheme may have played a role in the closure of the Corus Redcar steel plant, part of the Tata Group Europe. It suggest that, with a capacity of 3,000,000 tons of steel, closure of the plant will deliver "savings" of over 6 million tons of carbon dioxide, worth £80 million per annum at current rates but around £200 million at expected market levels.

It further argues that by "offshoring" production to India and bringing emissions down - from over twice the EU level - to the level currently produced by the Redcar plant, Tata stands to make another £200 million per annum from the UN's Clean Development Mechanism. It argues,

"Indian plants being paid up to £30 a ton for each ton of carbon dixoide 'saved' by building [a] new plant, while the company which owns them also gets gets paid £30 for each ton of carbon dioxide not produced in its Redcar plant. That gives it an estimated £400 million a year from the closure of the Redcar plant up to 2012 - potentially up to £1.2 billion. And that is over and above benefiting from cheaper production costs on the sub-continent."

• EU Referendum blog
• Open Europe research
• Open Europe research 2