Italy to Have New CO2 Caps Plan by Autumn - Minister
Date: 12-Jul-06
Country: ITALY
Italy, like almost all EU countries, missed a June 30 deadline to present its national allocation plan for the second stage of the EU's carbon trading scheme for 2008-2012. Only Estonia met the deadline.
"We are aiming at autumn to review the emission plan, to strengthen and rebalance it," Economic Development Minister Pierluigi Bersani said in a parliament commission hearing on Tuesday.
"We should review the allocation plan for 2008-2012, even at risk of missing deadlines and running into delay," he said.
Environment Minister Alfonso Pecoraro Scanio had said on June 30 that his ministry needed one more week for consultations with the economic development ministry.
Bersani said Italy should act boldly to honour commitments taken under Kyoto protocol to fight climate change, because it has been lagging behind Kyoto's targets.
"We had a target to reduce emissions by 6.5 percent by 2010. Now we have to cut by 14 percent in just five years because the situation had worsened."
Turning to the issue of natural gas, Bersani said Italy risked being hit again by shortages of supplies from Russia because Ukraine, through whose territory Russia exports most of its gas to Europe via pipeline, has not been adequately replenishing its own gas reserves.
"Ukraine is not refilling its (gas) storages, for economic and political reasons. There is a risk that in the winter, if it gets cold, a country which does not have storages will try to recoup energy where it can find it," Bersani told the Senate's environment commission.
Italy received about 30 percent of its gas from Russia in 2005. It had to tap emergency reserves last winter when Russian supplies fell due to Moscow's row over prices with Ukraine.
