After rejecting the first two drafts of the Polish National Allocation Plan for the second trading period of the EU ETS, the European Commission finally approved a revised version on Monday. A first draft was rejected in 2007 on the grounds that Poland allocated too many allowances to its industries (208.5 Mton per year); the EC requested to reduce the total cap by 26.7 percent. A second draft was resubmitted after receiving the support of the European Court of First Instances in 2009, which deemed illegal the EC request to Poland to reduce its cap, but was also rejected because it violated criteria set in the Directive. The final approved draft features a total cap that corresponds to the requests of the EC (208.5 Mton per year) and fulfils the requirements of the Directive. The happy ending between the EC and Poland reduces the uncertainty regarding the total supply of permits in the current trading phase of the EU ETS, but is only one small step in this direction as seven other Eastern European States have brought their complaints regarding EC decisions to court. In particular, Czech Republic, Latvia and Lithuania have lost no time in declaring that they will continue pursuing more allowances, counter to the EC decisions regarding their plans and to the fact that Poland eventually received none more than the EC wanted it to in the first place.

Climate Policy News

• This news is extracted from the Climate Policy News : a CMCC weekly column that summarises the latest news on international climate change agreements, the updates on the carbon market and the energy and technology updates in the realm of climate change. Go to the web page and see all previous issues since March 2007.
• This week: EC approves Polish NAP;Prada and the French solution(s); KLG bill faces unexpected hurdles; Japan ETS in progress; the carbon market this week – Download the April 19-25, 2010 Newsletter [Pdf 43 Kb]