Brussels, 04/05/2007 (Agence Europe) - On Friday, the European Commission approved Estonia's national plan for allocating (NAP) carbon dioxide (CO²) emission allowances for the 2008-2012 trading period, subject to a number of changes being made. In particular, it asks Tallinn to reduce its proposed cap by 11.7 million tonnes of CO² equivalent, to 12.7 million tonnes, a 47.8% reduction. Estonia's is the twentieth NAP to have been assessed for the 2008-2012 period.
Within the framework of the EU emissions trading scheme (EU ETS), which guarantees the reduction of greenhouse gases in the energy and industry sectors at the lowest possible cost to the economy, and thus helps the EU and its member states to meet their emissions commitments under the Kyoto Protocol, the NAP sets, for each member state, the “cap” or the maximum total amount of CO² emissions which installations covered by the EU ETS are authorised to emit, as well as the quantity of the CO² emission allowance allocated to each installation.
After applying its NAP evaluation criteria, the Commission has required Estonia to reduce its original total emissions allowance proposal of 24.38 million tonnes per year to 12.7 million tonnes per year. It also calls on Estonia to make the following changes in its plan: - the total quantity of allowances must include a reserve for credits to be issued for projects reducing emissions in the EU ETS sector in Estonia carried out under the Kyoto Protocol's joint implementation mechanism - the Commission feels that the allocation to installations carrying out the relevant activities needs to be lowered correspondingly; - allocations to installations benefiting from a bonus for early action must not exceed expected needs; - more information needs to be provided on how Estonia will treat new entrants to the emissions trading scheme. Once these changes have been made, the plan will be automatically approved by the Commission. (ol)