|
UK
registry
launches at last
The
UK
and the European Commission have finally agreed the country's national
allocation plan (Nap), clearing the way for the opening of the
UK
emissions registry and for
UK
firms to take part in spot trading.
The
UK
's total agreed allocation is 736mn t CO2e for 2005-07. This was the limit
approved by the commission in July 2004 but contested by the
UK
government, which even launched a legal bid to amend it (AGE, May, pp14-15).
The delayed advent of
UK
firms to the EU emissions trading scheme (ETS) spot market should accelerate
the growth of liquidity in the young market.
Account holders were sent details of how to access their allowances by
UK
environment ministry Defra towards the end of last month, with the aim of
beginning spot trading before June. Defra's plan was sent to the main EU ETS
transaction log CITL, which is responsible for verifying and confirming
registry transactions.
The software being used for the
UK
registry is the UK-developed Greta program, which has already been
successfully implemented in the
Netherlands
,
Denmark
,
Sweden
and
Finland
. A further eight countries are licensed to use it. Greta was developed
using experience garnered from the UK ETS, which started up in 2002.
The path to the go-ahead was often a rocky one. The
UK
government claimed it had underestimated its emissions projections for the
three-year period in its initial Nap, and sent a revised plan in November
last year, proposing an increase of around 20mn t of CO2e. But the
commission rejected this, and the
UK
eventually agreed to accept the lower allocation for the time being, with
the cuts being taken from the electricity generation sector.
To appease UK-based power producers, the government launched its low-key
legal action against the commission to try and force through the expanded
Nap. The government says it hopes the issue will be settled in the first
half of 2006, and that any additional allowances it wins will be allocated
to power companies.
Do better next time
"We are keen to see the scheme work properly, and hope that the
government plans ahead better for the second phase of the trading
scheme," says David Porter, chief executive of the
UK
's Association of Electricity Producers.
Meanwhile, respected
UK
scientific body the Royal Society warned last month that the country is on
course to miss even relaxed emissions targets. "Under current policies,
even the revised assessment of being able to reduce CO2 emissions to 14pc
below 1990 levels [by 2010], is overly optimistic," says the society.
David Wallace, vice-president of the Royal Society, urged the government to
reconsider the nuclear option, as well as beefing up renewables development
and energy efficiency measures.
This
article has been reproduced with permission from Argus media. It first
appeared in Argus Global Emissions Volume IV,6,June 2005.
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