EU Parliament, Nations Said to Clear Rules on CO2 NER300 Reserve Sales
Rules enabling the early sale of 3.1 billion euros ($4.4 billion) of carbon permits have been approved by the European Union’s member states and parliament, said two people with knowledge of the matter.
The measures, which got approval from national experts in June, passed after three months of scrutiny in the European Parliament yesterday and were backed by the bloc’s environment ministers at their Oct. 10 meeting in Luxembourg, the people said, declining to be identified because the information hasn’t been made public. The next step is official adoption by the European Commission, the EU’s executive arm, which usually takes about two to three weeks.
Once officially adopted by the commission, the regulation will enable the early transfer of 300 million permits to the European Investment Bank, which will then sell the allowances. The sales, designed to help fund innovative energy projects, may start this year and possibly go beyond 2012, the EIB said this month.
The EU rules, which the EIB has said are expected to enter into force in the first half of November, allow the commission to deliver the post-2012 allowances to the bank even before the single registry that is due to track them is fully operational. The EIB said Oct. 6 it will start sales soon after the delivery.
To contact the reporter on this story: Ewa Krukowska in Brussels at ekrukowska@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Stephen Voss at sev@bloomberg.net
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