Emissions trade €9.4bn last year
Permits to produce a tonne of carbon dioxide were changing hands last week for just over €30, after rises linked to stronger oil prices.
Internationally, it was reported that a Brazilian firm sealed the world’s biggest carbon credit contract so far for a pro-environment project. The firm, which generates electricity from rubbish, sold 1 million tonnes of carbon credits for at least €15 per tonne to the German state development bank KFW, which will pass them on to their industrial clients.
Carbon credits are a market mechanism set up by the Kyoto protocol, which aims to reduce the emission of gases linked to global warming.
Industries in developed countries have limits on the carbon dioxide (CO2) they can emit.
In the EU, responsibility for a portion of each member state’s emission reduction targets is placed on large industrial and power generation facilities. If they exceed them, they must pay a fine, or buy allowances from companies that undershoot their targets.
Heading the list of Ireland’s greenhouse gas emissions budget is the ESB, which produces more emissions than virtually every other Irish company put together — principally from its coal-powered and peat-burning plants.
* It has been agreed that Irish companies that close installations as part of rationalisation can retain up to 75% of their emissions trading allocation. Welcoming this as a recognition of the downsizing needs of the agri-food sector, Agriculture and Food Minister Mary Coughlan said, “Small companies in particular may soon need to face this possibility in order to consolidate and improve market share. It would have been an anomaly for such companies to forfeit their allowances in pursuit of a more competitive business environment only to be obliged to invest in new allowances in the consolidated enterprise.”
