Italy to Meet EU's Carbon Cut Request in Full
Date: 13-Dec-07
Country: ITALY
Author: Svetlana Kovalyova
Brussels said in May Italy must cut emissions by companies covered by the bloc's emissions trading scheme (ETS) in 2008-2012 to 195.8 million tonnes a year, or by about six percent less than Rome had proposed initially.
After months of debates with smokestack industries, the ministry said Italy had agreed to cut carbon dioxide (C02) emissions from sectors covered by the ETS by 13.64 million tonnes to 195 million tonnes a year.
"Today a plan is ready to reduce industrial emissions in line with European commitments to combat climate change," Italy's Environment Minister Alfonso Pecoraro Scanio said.
Italy is one of the countries lagging furthest behind on targets under the Kyoto Protocol.
Under the climate change treaty, it has to cut its greenhouse gas emissions by about seven percent from 1990 levels by 2012, but emissions increased 12 percent in 2004.
"With this plan, Italy is heading towards Kyoto," Pecoraro Scanio said in a statement.
As requested by Brussels, the CO2 emissions limit, set in the revised national allocation plan (NAP), would rise by about six million tonnes a year if new industrial processes, for instance cracking in oil refining, were added to the ETS, the ministry said.
Under the revised NAP, the share of emissions that can be offset by credits earned or bought in developing nations is cut to 15 percent of total assigned limits from 25 percent in the previous plan.
These certified emission reductions (CERs) and emission reduction units (ERUs) usually cost industries less than reducing their own emissions.
BURDEN DIVIDED
All industrial sectors have been asked to make an additional effort to reduce CO2 emissions, the ministry said.
Under the revised NAP, which is published on the ministry's website, fossil fuel-fired power generation would bear the brunt of CO2 reductions as the sector is requested to cut annual emissions by 9.5 million tonnes.
Those cuts would not include plants producing renewable energy, which are covered by the government CIP-6 incentive plan.
The oil refinery sector would have to tighten its cap on annual emissions by 1 million tonnes, while in the steel sector, annual cuts of 1.7 million tonnes are focused only on power generators feeding steel plants.
The CO2 emission quota for new industrial plants -- a subject of intense debate as it is considered to be important for overall economic development -- would be trimmed by 2.6 million tonnes a year to an average of 15.65 million tonnes.
The ETS -- part of Europe's efforts to fight global climate change -- puts a cap on the CO2 emissions of energy-intensive industry, including those of installations yet to be built.
The revised NAP does not include assigning paid emission quotas as was foreseen in a previous plan, the ministry said.
The plan is open for public consultations for two weeks and after that it will be sent to Brussels, the ministry said.
(Editing by Anthony Barker)
