Danish emission trading to start in January 2001
Copyright © 2000 Reuters Limited.
March 29, 2000
OSLO, March 29 (Reuters) - Denmark's Ministry of Energy and Environment said on Wednesday domestic trading in carbon dioxide emission quotas will start in 2001 and added it hoped its Nordic neighbours and other European countries would soon follow suit.
The European Commission gave Denmark the green light on Wednesday to trade in CO2 certificates, the first of its kind in the 15-nation European Union.
``It will start the first of January next year,'' Joergen Abildgaard, head of division at the ministry, told Reuters.
He said trading at the beginning of the year would make it easier for electricity companies to assess production and consumption targets.
Under the Danish programme, the state will allocate emission permits for free to electricity producers established in Denmark based on their historical emissions between 1994 and 1998.
Denmark's energy sector is responsible for more than 45 percent of total greenhouse gas emissions in Denmark, largely due to coal-based power production.
Abildgaard also said potential emission trading partners in Scandinavia and elsewhere in Europe would benefit Denmark's relatively small market.
``The market in Denmark is quite small so we are looking to trade with other countries interested in establishing a system,'' he said, naming Britain and other Nordic countries as examples.
Abildgaard said environment and energy ministers in the Nordic countries were in talks for a regional system but no conclusions had yet been made.
Denmark's new system comes ahead of a worldwide scheme set for 2008, prompted by the 1997 United Nations Kyoto agreement, by which the EU agreed to cut emissions of greenhouse gases by eight percent from 1990 levels between 2008 and 2012.
The EU has expressed interest in setting up a trading programme for CO2 emission quotas by 2005.
Emissions trading, under which heavy polluters can buy credits to pollute from cleaner industries, is seen as a key to enabling the bloc to meet its targets.