Bulgaria Allocates Co2 Permits By End Of March

Bulgarian government is expected to allocate to industry permits to emit 42.3 million tonnes of annual carbon dioxide for 2007 and 2008 by March 27, the Environment Ministry official announced on Monday, told from Reuters.

By that time the state will submit the necessary information to the EC regarding allocations to get a final approval and launch trading by the end of April.

This was informed by Stefan Bishovski, head of the Climate Change department at the Environment Ministry, in front of Reuters.

Launching trade by end-April is very important so that businesses can meet a deadline to register their 2007 emissions, Bishovski explained.

The EU's carbon trading scheme is the 27 nation bloc's main strategy to fight climate change, and sets an overall cap on permits to emit the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide (CO2) to energy-intensive industry, but allows companies to trade these EU Allowances (EUAs) among themselves.

Last December , Bulgaria became the 8th post-communist east European country to take legal action against the EU executive Commission, after Brussels slashed Sofia's original 2008-2012 CO2 annual emission quota by 37% to 42.3 million tonnes, informed from the media.

The East European countries have argued lower CO2 emissions would hurt the robust growth of their emerging economies.

A deadline expired on February 28 for EU countries to allocate permits to their industries in 2008, the first year of the second round of the CO2 trading scheme.

Only Austria and Denmark had met the deadline.international.ibox.bg