Romania hasn't yet "officially" started negotiations to sell CO2 emission certificates, but Spain and Japan have already expressed their interest, Romania's Environment Minister Laszlo Borbely said Wednesday, news agency Mediafax reports.

Selling emission certificates could bring some EUR2 billion to the state budget by 2012, according to Borbely. He added the funds would be used exclusively for environmental projects.

Economy Minister Adriean Videanu said negotiations could start when a technical solution is found for the conversion of the currency used in the transactions.

The government has recently approved selling the excess CO2 emission certificates.

Under the Kyoto Protocol, Romania 's total CO2 emissions for the 2008-2012 period can't exceed 379.72 million metric tons (or 379.72 million allowances).

Romanian greenhouse gas emission reached a little over 47 million tons in 2009, 38% below the country's annual allowance of 76 million tons, according to Environment Ministry data.

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