Brussels, 26/02/2007 (Agence Europe) - The Spanish National Allocation Plan for greenhouse gas emissions (NAP) for the period 2008-2012 has passed its interim examination, conditional upon a few improvements. On 26 February, the European Commission announced that it had given its conditional green light to the second Spanish NAP, which had been duly assessed in light of the criteria under directive 2003/87/EC, which instituted the Community system of trading in emissions quotas within the EU (ETS).
“I welcome the Spanish government's ambitious determination to use the Emissions Trading Scheme as a central component of its effort to comply with its Kyoto target. Its very solid allocation plan helps create the scarcity in allowances that is essential for the scheme's success in the second trading period (…). The Commission will continue to assess all national plans in a consistent way to ensure that (…) the EU meets its Kyoto target”, commented Stavros Dimas, European Commissioner for the Environment.
In order to approve the Spanish NAP, the Commission set a limit for the annual total emissions quotas at 152.3 million tons of CO2 (as against Spain's proposal of 152.7 million tons), which will oblige Spain to reduce its “pollution licences” by 0.42 million tons of CO2 equivalent, to be shared between the industrial installations covered by the directive.
In order for its plan to be definitively approved, Spain has been asked to come into line with three requirements: - to provide the Commission with clarification on the treatment to be reserved for market newcomers; - to bring down to 22% (instead of 39% as proposed by Spain) the share of emissions which can be obtained by each company via investment projects in third countries, whether these are in transitional economy countries (the so-called “joint implementation” mechanism) or developing countries (own development mechanism); - a complete list of all installations including the number of licences which Spain intends to grant to each of them. Once these corrections have been put into place, the Spanish NAP will be considered adopted.
The Spanish NAP is the 14th national plan which has been assessed by the Commission to date. These 14 plans cover 70% of the quotas granted over the first commitment period (2005-2007). The Commission is still waiting for the plans of Cyprus and Denmark (an infringement procedure is under way against these two old member states, for failing to notify their plan within the given deadline), and for Bulgaria's plan.
The other NAPs which had been notified to the Commission (including the French and Italian plans) are being examined. “The Commission will take its decision as quickly as possible, before the beginning of the summer”, Commissioner Dimas's spokesperson, Barbara Helfferich, told the press. (an)