Germany accepts EU carbon emissions cap
Source: Reuters
(adds quotes) By Erik Kirschbaum and Paul Taylor BERLIN/BRUSSELS, Feb 9 (Reuters) - Germany caved in to the European Commission on Friday over its greenhouse gas emissions plan for 2008-12, saying it would not challenge a cap imposed by Brussels to help fight global warming. The European Union executive, determined to uphold the credibility of the EU's pioneering emissions trading system, demanded in November a carbon emissions limit for Germany some 6 percent tighter than Berlin had initially proposed. The dispute had threatened to embarrass Europe's biggest polluter, which has vowed to make climate change a centrepiece of its twin presidencies of the European Union and the G8. Berlin said it had scored some undisclosed successes in return for accepting the Commission ruling on its emissions cap. "We were able to push through several of our points but on the upper level of the quotas there was no change," spokesman Ulrich Wilhelm said at a government news conference. "Germany will not appeal against the European Commission carbon dioxide emissions cap," he added. "We're fully behind climate protection and are already making a disproportionate contribution." Under the EU carbon market, the 27-nation bloc's main weapon against climate change, energy-intensive industries such as power generators get a quota of carbon emissions permits up to a certain cap, above which they have to buy extra permits. One German demand was to allow its industry to buy extra permits up to a fifth of its EU quota by funding emissions cuts in developing countries under the Kyoto Protocol on global warming, seen as a cheap alternative. Neither Berlin nor Brussels would comment on whether Germany had won that request. The Commission praised Germany for showing leadership in the fight against climate change but Environment Commissioner Stavros Dimas insisted Brussels had made no special deal with Berlin to win acceptance of the reduced pollution limit. "What we shall do for Germany, we shall do for all the other countries. What we apply for other countries, we'll apply for Germany," Dimas told a news conference. "We are not going to make a special deal with any of the member states." ACCEPTABLE Germany accepted the EU cap of 453.1 million tonnes a year on its industry's carbon dioxide emissions in the next, 2008-2012 trading period of the EU carbon market, down from the 482 million tonnes it had initially sought, and a subsequent offer of 465 million tonnes. A Commission spokeswoman said Brussels had indicated informally to Germany that some of its requests for amendments to its emissions plan, apart from the cap, could be acceptable if it provided further information. She declined to say whether Berlin's demand to able to buy up to 20 percent of its carbon credits was among the acceptable changes. "I will not comment on that," spokeswoman Barbara Helfferich told a news briefing. "The Commission welcomes the German government's strong commitment to a successful EU emissions trading scheme." She added that only national governments and not companies could sue the Commission over CO2 caps, and said the EU executive was unaware of any legal challenges brought by individual companies on the German NAP. Slovakia became on Wednesday the first state to launch a legal challenge against the Commission's carbon market rulings. "Legal challenges can have the effect of undermining certainty in the EU scheme," said carbon market lobby group European Carbon Investors and Services (ECIS) on Friday.
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