Poland will transfer carbon dioxide emission rights for 2008 and 2009 to companies participating in the European Union's Emissions Trading Scheme in days, a top government official said Thursday.
"We will transfer CO2 rights in days, by April 15 at the latest," Deputy Environment Minister Bernard Blaszczyk told Dow Jones Newswires.
When Poland's annual average CO2 allocation amounting to 208.5 million metric tons is transferred to companies' accounts all local firms participating in the ETS will be able to trade their emissions rights.
The transfer of the CO2 allocation to over 800 emitters was delayed while Poland contested the E.U.'s decision to trim the overall emission quota for 2008-12, and more recently the government and the European Commission were ironing out the final details of the National Allocation Plan.
Analysts expect that when Poland's sizable CO2 quota is available to companies, the pries of carbon emissions may fall as power producers will start selling their rights given lower demand for electricity due to the economic crisis.
According to preliminary European Commission estimates, CO2 emissions in the E.U. may have fallen 8.5% in 2008 on the year to 1.981 billion metric tons. That implies that Polish quota exceeds 10% of the E.U. emission.
Polish electricity consumption is expected to decrease by 5%-6% this year due to the economic situation.