BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS

DATE:

20/11/2006

UN Countries Allow Belarus to Trade CO2 Credits

NAIROBI - Some 165 countries which are signed up to the Kyoto Protocol on Friday allowed Belarus into a club of 35 industrialised countries that face binding limits on their emissions of greenhouse gases from 2008-12.

But Belarus is well within its new target to cut emissions, meaning it can sell surplus rights to emit to other countries in the club - some of which are well above their limits - using a Kyoto carbon trading mechanism.

Belarus could sell 46 million tonnes of such rights per year from 2008 to 2012, estimated Greenpeace on Friday, which could put downward pressure on carbon prices in the European carbon market, which is linked to the Kyoto trading scheme.

Environmental groups have criticised such carbon trading under Kyoto because it allows the buyer to continue to emit greenhouse gases while not requiring the seller to cuts its emissions.

But Friday's decision was conditional that Belarus would have to plough revenues from its emission trading into making emissions cuts.

Source:

http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/39061/story.htm

Google