This will help the EU achieve its Kyoto protocol targets for limiting greenhouse gas emissions.
EU Commission set to approve Malta’s emissions plan
The European Commission is today expected to approve Malta’s National Allocation Plan on Emissions Trading.
Sources close to the Commission yesterday told The Times that Malta’s plan, submitted last October, had been studied thoroughly by the Commission and already given the green light.
The Commission will also discuss and possibly approve similar plans drawn up by Spain, Cyprus, Lithuania and Hungary. This will bring the number of plans approved to 21 and will open the way for the implementation of the Community CO2 emissions quota trading system commencing on January 1.
Under the emissions trading scheme, each EU member state is obliged to adopt a National Allocation Plan which allocates emissions allowances to entities that produce significant volumes of greenhouse gases. In Malta’s case this applies mostly to the two power station plants owned by Enemalta.
The scheme is intended to help the EU to achieve, in a cost-effective manner, its Kyoto protocol targets for limiting greenhouse gas emissions. Initially, the first plan by each member state will cover three years, from 2005 to 2007.
Meanwhile, in preparation for its decision, the Commission yesterday announced that according to a study just concluded, the EU and most individual member states should be able to achieve their greenhouse gas emissions reduction targets under the Kyoto Protocol.
The EU-15 has committed itself to reducing emissions by eight per cent from 1990 levels by 2008-2012, while most of the new member states have individual reduction targets of eight per cent (six per cent for Hungary and Poland) under the Protocol. So far, Malta and Cyprus have no Kyoto targets.
By 2002 emissions had been reduced by 2.9 per cent in the “old” member states and by nine per cent in the EU-25. The latest emission projections from member states suggest that a combination of existing domestic policies and measures, additional policies and measures which are already in an advanced state of planning and emission credits gained through the Protocol’s project-based mechanisms will deliver a total EU-15 emissions cut of 8.6 per cent by 2010.
This is despite the fact that some EU-15 member states are projected to have emissions in 2010 exceeding their legally binding targets. All new member states with targets are on track to meet their Kyoto Protocol targets on the basis of existing and additional policies and measures.
Stavros Dimas, the European Environment Commissioner, said in a press conference in Brussels: “This progress report gives grounds for optimism that both the EU-15 and the new member states are well on course to meet their Kyoto targets. This is vital if the EU is to maintain its leading role in combating the global challenge of climate change”.
The report also states that emissions reductions by 2002 were insufficient. Mr Dimas said that policies and measures, both the existing ones and the additional ones planned, have to be effectively implemented if the EU is to achieve the further cuts needed.