EU Commission studying Malta's emissions plan

The European Commission is assessing Malta's National Allocation Plan on Emissions Trading and should be in a position to announce its decision by the end of this year.

Malta's plan was forwarded to the Commission at the end of October, five months after the EU's deadline.

Under the emissions trading scheme, each EU member state is obliged to adopt a national plan which allocates emissions allowances to entities that produce significant volumes of greenhouse gases. In Malta's case this applies mostly to the two power station plants owned by Enemalta.

The scheme is intended to help the EU achieve, in a cost-effective manner, its Kyoto protocol targets for limiting greenhouse gas emissions. It will start functioning as from the beginning of next year and initially the first plan by each member state will cover three years, from 2005 to 2007.

Lone Mikkelsen, a spokesman for the Environment Directorate General, confirmed that Malta had forwarded its NAP at the end of October. She added that "the Commission is at present assessing it".

Asked for her reaction on the contents and whether it is in line with EU policy, Ms Mikkelsen chose not to comment. She said only the Commission "cannot comment on details of the plan or the assessments yet but will make its decision on the plan public once we have finished our work".

The Commission has already approved 16 plans out of a total of 25. At present it is assessing another eight, including Malta's, and is still waiting for Greece to forward its plan. The Finnish and French plans have been approved only on condition that certain technical changes are made.

The emissions trading scheme is a cornerstone in the fight against climate change. It is the first international trading system for carbon dioxide emissions in the world and covers some 12,000 installations representing close to half of Europe's emissions of the gas. The aim is to help member states achieve compliance with their commitments under the Kyoto protocol.

A spokesman for the Commission told The Times that emissions trading does not imply new environmental targets, but allows for cheaper compliance with existing targets under the Kyoto protocol. He said this is done by letting participating companies buy or sell emission allowances. If the scheme had not been adopted, other, more costly measures would have to be implemented, he said.

The National Allocation Plan determines the total quantity of carbon dioxide emissions that member states will grant to their companies, which can then be sold or bought by the companies themselves. This means that each member state must decide how many allowances to allocate in total for the first three years of the trading period, 2005 - 2007, and how many each plant covered by the scheme will receive.