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Romania risks losing 1.5 billion euro if it does not manage to sell CO2 certificates
Romania has a surplus of 300 million carbon dioxide emission allowances earmarked under the Kyoto Protocol, and it has to sell them by 2012 for 5 euros each, a smaller price than in 2009-2010, head of the Climate Change Department of the Romanian Environment Ministry Florentina Manea told a conference on Tuesday on energy issues.
Romania did not manage to sell its 300 million CO2 certifications surplus. If they would have been sold two years ago, Romania would have gained 3 billion euro. However, they were not sold then because there was no legislation. Meanwhile, when the legislation was adopted, the start was lost and it was hard to find other states interested. Their value also dropped to half compared to the 2009-2010 level. If sold now, Romania would obtain 1.5 billion euro, Environment ministry director Florentina Manea said. However, there is also the possibility not to sell certificates until 2012.
The deadline to sell CO2 emission certificates is 2012 and Romania has been negotiating with other states that did not comply with their Kyoto protocol requirements like Japan, Spain, Portugal or Canada. However, none of the negotiations lead further, Manea said. She expressed her hope that Romania will manage to sell the certificates. Romania has extra certificates because it polluted out. The more industrialized the country, the more it pollutes.
Manea added that Romania is currently negotiating selling the allowances to countries that have not met their obligations under the Kyoto Protocol, including Japan, Spain, Portugal and Canada.
She mentioned Russia and Ukraine as countries that have lost credibility for spending the money raised from trading their allowances on other projects than environmental ones.
'We hope that an actual trade will happen in the period immediately ahead so that we may join the group of the Czech Republic and Poland, which have managed to sell their allowances. Russia and Ukraine have lost their credibility as they spent the money they raised for other purposes than environmental projects,' she said.
In Romania, the money raised from trading the emission allowances will be managed by the Environmental Fund and used for six project categories in an attempt to curb greenhouse gas emissions, said Manea.