Bulgaria hopes to convince the European Commission to change the
country’s carbon emission limit for 2008-12 but will take it to court
if it refuses, Environment Minister Dzevdet Chakarov said yesterday.
Chakarov
said the new European Union member needs every ton of its proposed
quota of 67.6 million tons, which the Commission had cut by 37 percent
to 42.3 million tons and will bring the issue to a working meeting in
Brussels next week.
“We will take action to defend our proposed
quota at a working meeting on November 22. I hope we will be given the
desired amount,” Chakarov told reporters. “But if we don’t, we’ll turn
to court.”
The EU emission trading scheme is the bloc’s key tool
to cut the emissions of planet-warming gas carbon dioxide (CO2) by
giving firms too few permits to pollute, forcing them either to clean
up or buy extra permits from others with a surplus.
Chakarov said
the Commission did not take into account that the closure of two of
Bulgaria’s 440-megawatt nuclear reactors last year will increase its
needs to pollute, nor has it calculated the country’s accelerated
economic growth in the past years.
Chakarov and business leaders
said the cap would hurt Bulgaria’s developing economy and may lead to
the bankruptcy of smaller producers and raise its energy prices.
At
least seven member states – Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia,
Hungary, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia – have said they will challenge
the commission in court over the allowances.
The European
Commission has cut by 10 percent the allowances wanted by the 27 member
states in an attempt to put the bloc back on track to meet its Kyoto
targets.
Because of its long transition period from communism to
a market economy, Bulgaria’s heavy industries have declined,
significantly cutting the level of greenhouse gas emissions to under 50
percent below its obligation under the Kyoto Protocol.
Under the
protocol, Bulgaria has committed to cutting emissions by 8 percent in
2008-12 from its 1988 levels of 124 million tons.
Chakarov said he would not allow Bulgarian industries to become buyers from possible sellers of emission rights.