Japan and Spain interested in Romania carbon certificates

April 2010 - From the Print Edition

Japan and Spain are interested in buying country-to-country carbon emmission certificates worth about one billion Euro from Romania, said Minister of the Environment and Forests Laszlo Borbely. Romania has just approved a law enabling country-to-country carbon trading, which could see Romania cash in massively due to a huge reduction in its industrial pollution since 1989. Romania’s carbon emission certificates have a market value of about 6.7 Euro per unit. These are permits issued under the EU Emission Trading Scheme (EU ETS) set up for large industries to cut their greenhouse gas emissions. Spain or Japan could buy carbon certificates from Romania, giving these countries the right to pollute over their quota under the Kyoto Protocol. Under the protocol, between 2008 and 2012, Romania can release annually about 250 million tonnes of greenhouse gases. Now the country’s average carbon emissions per year stands at about 160 million tonnes. Romania could therefore sell up to five per cent of its emission allocation - the money from which the country would need to invest in environmentally beneficial projects.