Climate

Climate | 27.10.2009
EU opposes Polish plan to sell pollution rights

Montage of a euro symbol with cars and smoke from power plants in the background
Großansicht des Bildes mit der Bildunterschrift: A cap-and-trade system puts a price on each ton of CO2 emitted
The Polish government has announced that it intendeds to sell surplus greenhouse gas emissions certificates to other countries. Such deals could become more common if a global cap and trade system is put in place.


Polish Environment Minister Maciej Nowicki on Monday said Warsaw was prepared to sell Ireland and Spain 40 million euros ($60 million) worth of greenhouse gas emissions rights in what would be the first government-to-government deal.



Such a sale is permitted under the Kyoto Protocol, which was ratified in 1997 and expires in 2012. Poland has seen a dramatic drop in greenhouse gas emissions since the fall of communism and, because the Kyoto agreement uses 1990 as a baseline for emission measurements, the country has been left with a surplus of emissions certificates.



Under the Kyoto agreement, Poland pledged to reduce greenhouse gas emissions related to transportation, industry and personal consumption by 6 percent of 1990 levels by 2012. Actual reductions in Poland, however, amount to 29 percent.



Now Warsaw is ready to sell its extra pollution rights provided by Kyoto to other countries that are not on track to meet their emissions reduction targets.



Selling the right to pollute



Smoke rising from a smokestackBildunterschrift: Großansicht des Bildes mit der Bildunterschrift: Relative improvements in CO2 emissions have left Poland with extra pollution rights

Sales similar to the ones proposed in Poland could become more common if experts agree to a global "cap and trade" when negotiating a successor to the Kyoto Protocol. The United States is considering such a scheme and the European Union has already set one up among companies.



The rights to emit billions of tons of carbon dioxide, potentially worth billions of euros, are currently held by eastern European countries as well as Russia. If the nations are permitted to retain the pollution rights after 2012 many of these countries could make a substantial profit from selling the surplus rights without lowering actual emissions at home or in the nations that purchase the certificates, an anonymous EU Commission official told the AFP news agency.



To make sure it retains the currently unused emissions rights, Poland last week opposed a German plan calling for countries to forfeit their rights to unused emissions certificates in 2012.



"It's very important for some of the eastern European countries that they be allowed to bring these surplus (permits) into a new commitment period, but it's equally important for many others of us (to make clear) that it will not work," Denmark's Climate Minister Connie Hedegaard told the German press agency dpa, adding that unrestricted use of the permits would "undermine the whole position of the EU and the EU target after 2012."



Danger to emissions markets



A solar power arrayBildunterschrift: Großansicht des Bildes mit der Bildunterschrift: Cheap emissions certificates could reduce investment in renewable energy

Some western European nations are upset at the Polish plans that, they say, circumvent European regulations regarding the exchange of emissions rights among companies and could constrain the emissions exchange market.



"Poland and our other eastern European friends think, very short-sightedly, that they can buy benefits by carrying over unused certificates, but this would destroy emissions markets," outgoing German Environment Minister Sigmar Gabriel warned last week.



The issue of how to finance greenhouse gas reductions is likely to be on the agenda when European leaders meet at a two-day summit beginning Thursday in Brussels.



"We need to find a solution on financing the internal burden-sharing," Sweden's European Affairs Minister Cecilia Malmstroem said Monday. "We need to do that very soon. I think our children cannot wait for us to get the figures right."



sms/Reuters/dpa/AFP

Editor: Kate Bowen