Italy will launch a long-awaited national market for carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions trading in April as the country seeks to catch up with Europe’s efforts to fight climate change, Italian ministries said on Wednesday

MILAN, Italy; March 15, 2007.- “Launch of the market will help Italy to catch up on a delay it has accumulated compared to other European countries in realisation of a platform for CO2 trading,” the Economic Development and Environment Ministries said in a joint statement.

The voluntary spot market, which will start on April 2 and will be run by Italy’s power market operator GME, would help Italian companies find efficient ways to reduce CO2 emissions, the ministries said.

Companies will be able to trade in carbon credits called European Union Allowances (EUA) for the first and second phase of the EU’s emission trading scheme and in Certified Emission Reductions (CERs) issued under the Kyoto Protocol.

Other instruments may be added later.

Carbon markets — part of European Union’s efforts to combat global warming under the Kyoto Protocol — allow companies and countries, which face targets to cut their greenhouse emissions, to shop around for the cheapest emissions reduction permits.

The EU trading scheme gives companies a certain quota of carbon emissions permits beyond which they have to pay for permits from cleaner companies that have a surplus.

European companies can also buy permits by funding emissions cuts in developing countries under the Kyoto Protocol’s so-called flexibility mechanisms, and tough European targets should also stimulate that trade.

(Reuters)

 

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