Brussels, 03/04/2007 (Agence Europe) - Austria's nation plan for allocating carbon dioxide emission quotas for the 2008-2012 trading period has been endorsed by the European Commission subject to a few changes.
On 2 April, the European Commission announced that is has approved Austria's National Allocation Plan (NAP) as long as the total amount of CO2 emissions quotas is reduced. The total emissions that can be allocated to companies involved in the EU's carbon trading programme each year must be cut to 30.7 million tonnes, 6.4% less than the amount proposed by Austria.
Further changes have been requested. The proposed extent of companies' use of credits from emission-reduction projects carried out in third countries under the Kyoto Protocol's flexible mechanisms is not consistent with the rule that these mechanisms should be used to supplement domestic action on emissions. Austria is required to ensure the use of these credits does not represent an addition to its annual allocation of more than 10 %.
Once the changes have been made, Austria's NAP will be considered formally approved. No further procedures will be necessary. In a press release, EU Environment Commissioner Stavros Dimas said: "Today's decision reinforces the strong signal we gave with previous decisions that Europe is fully committed to achieving its Kyoto target and to making the Emissions Trading Scheme a successful weapon for fighting climate change… The Commission is assessing all national plans in a consistent way to ensure equal treatment of Member States and to create the necessary scarcity in the European carbon market."
The criteria set out in Directive 2003/87/EC on the EU Emissions Trading Scheme were used by the European Commission in its examination of Austria's NAP. The Commission is keen to ensure coherence between its commitments under the Kyoto Protocol and the NAPs, to ensure the quotas match the actual level of annual emissions of the country in question (to ensure quotas are set at the right level) and taking account of the potential use of technology to cut emissions.
This conditional approval of Austria's NAP brings the total NAPs assessed by the European Commission to date to eighteen. The total quantity of emissions that industries covered by the European carbon trading scheme are allowed to emit under the NAPs is 1632.85 million tonnes of CO2 a year (compared with 1784.38 million tonnes of CO2 a year during the experimental phase, 2005-2007). The actual level of emissions in 2005, verified by the Commission, stood at 1646.51 million tonnes. (an)