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Document 92003E002791

WRITTEN QUESTION E-2791/03 by Eija-Riitta Korhola (PPE-DE) to the Commission. Problem of double accounting in emissions trading.

OJ C 78E, 27.3.2004, p. 429–430 (ES, DA, DE, EL, EN, FR, IT, NL, PT, FI, SV)

European Parliament's website

27.3.2004   

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

CE 78/429

(2004/C 78 E/0449)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-2791/03

by Eija-Riitta Korhola (PPE-DE) to the Commission

(19 September 2003)

Subject:   Problem of double accounting in emissions trading

From 2008 national AAU (BSA) amount will be adjusted to take account of cross-border transfers of emission allowances so as to ensure that a selling country's AAU (BSA) amount is decreased and that of the buying country increased by the quantity transferred. The selling country's authorities will correspondingly have that much less to allocate in the next emissions trading period. Given that the authorities presumably cannot treat firms differently, according to whether they sell emission allowances within their home country or beyond its borders, a seller's emission allowance in the next period should logically be reduced in every case. This would also be consistent with the principle that emission reductions should be taken into account only once.

However, a firm can choose between the strategies of selling and banking emission allowances so as to derive greatest benefit. If a firm is able to bank its emission allowance in order to secure a better (or unchanged) share in the next period, the authorities should treat firms which have banked emission allowances and firms which have sold them in the same way and hence in both cases deduct the amounts sold or banked from their new initial allocations (unless allowances have been banked purely because of fluctuations in a firm's output for reasons related to the business cycle). Otherwise it would be in a firm's interest to postpone selling and bank emission allowances, in which case it would obtain twice as much to sell in the next period.

Does the Commission see a problem as regards equal treatment of firms? Should the Member States all give instructions for the amounts of emission allowances banked or sold to be deducted from the next allocations for the firms concerned, thus ensuring that the problem of double accounting would not arise? Should this matter be raised when the directive is reviewed?

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