García-Munté Energía

NEWS

Emission Rights

As you know, the CO2 emission rights allocation plan for 2008-2012 has just been published in the Official State Bulletin (BOE dated 25/11/2006). During this period there will be a free allowance of 144,848 TM CO2 per year, which is 19% lower than the previous period. According to information provided by the Ministry, the emission allocation for the next term has been based on the following criteria:

-Data from the National Emissions Inventory for 2005
-Questionnaires submitted by industrial associations
-National Emission Rights Registry (RENADE)
-Other sources

The distribution by sector is quite conservative although there has been a surprisingly drastic reduction for electricity, which has dropped by 55%, and the brick manufacturing sector has seen a 10% decline in emissions assigned. Allocations for other sectors, such as the lime industry, have also been reduced. On the other hand, the emission rights of the cement sector have increased by 5.3% and the emissions assigned to the tile sector have increased by approximately 60%.

If we look at the number and name of the installations that have been granted greenhouse gas emission (GEI) authorization by the Ministry and Climate Change Office for the next term, we note that some installations have been eliminated altogether which leads us to believe that we need to re-examine the new emission allocations not globally but individually.

We must also remember that it is not possible to carry over rights from one period to another and that all rights assigned for the current period must be used by December 31, 2006.