Brussels, 09/08/2004 (Agence Europe) - Last week, Spain, Italy and Poland notified their National Allocation Plans (NAPs) for the European Emissions Trading Scheme quotas to the European Commission (for the carbon trading scheme to be set up for companies in the EU in January 2005).
The World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) has already made an initial assessment of the NAPS and indicates in a press release that "out of three National Allocation Plans … only Spain's reflects serious climate change action and will help Europe to meet its Kyoto targets. The two others, from Italy and Poland, are simply a 'bad joke'." The WWF accuses the Italian and Polish governments of giving their power sector and heavy industry very serious emission rights for the first trading period of 2005-2007. Italy and Poland, along with Spain, emit as much CO2 as Germany and France. "EU governments should understand that strong targets help the climate and create a real demand for trading. On the contrary, weak targets undermine CO2 reduction commitments, make everyone a potential seller of emission rights, and therefore kill the market", said Dr Stephan Singer, head of WWF's European climate and energy unit in a press release.
"A notable exception", according to the WWF, "is Spain. Although not perfect, Spain's NAP shows a clear intention to reduce emissions each year in the power and industry sector… Since 1990, Spain increased its overall emissions by more than 40%. Its power sector emissions, mainly from coal burning, grew by 58%. The country's plan projects an annual reduction of 0.2% over the 2005-7 period compared with 2002 emissions.
"To break this trend and actually start an absolute reduction path in the very next year shows leadership in the EU and a real commitment to tackle global warming," commented the WWF.
So far, only eight NAPs have been approved by the European Commission. Infringement proceedings have been launched against Italy and Greece (see Europe of 8 July, p.15).