Carbon caps ‘discriminate’ against new member states

European Commission decisions on national caps for carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions discriminate unfairly against new member states, according to Latvia and Slovakia.

Both countries have been asked to reduce the annual emission quotas proposed in their national allocation plans (NAPs) for a second round of CO2 emission trading in 2008-12.

Slovakia last week started legal action against the Commission, saying an emissions cut of ten million tonnes demanded by Brussels would slow growth and investment.

Latvia has sent a letter to the Commission, along with a revised NAP, setting out its objections to the EU executive’s requested emission reduction. "For a country whose emissions are so small anyway," explained a representative of the Latvian government, "the emission cap proposed by the Commission would limit development and new investments."

The revised plan offers to set the Latvian annual emission cap at 6.25m tonnes, down from 7.7m tonnes in the original proposal but well above the 3.3m tonnes requested by the Commission.

Latvian centre-right MEP Valdis Dombrovskis said it was too early for Latvia to follow the Slovakian legal example, but that the option could not be ruled out. "We must see the outcome of negotiations with the Commission first, but the Slovakian example is certainly worth studying," he said.

Dombrovskis said Latvia had the lowest greenhouse gas emissions per person of all 27 member states and got 37% of its energy from renewable sources. "Without any additional policies," he said, "Latvia is projected to reduce emissions by 46%, already over five and a half times beyond its Kyoto [Protocol] target."

"Countries such as Belgium and the Netherlands, who are nowhere near meeting their Kyoto targets, were allowed emissions increases anyway," he added. "Capping new member states at a low level of growth just doesn’t make sense: as long as a low level of emissions is maintained, supporting further growth is equally important."

A Commission environment spokeswoman refused to comment on the claims that the NAP decisions discriminate against new member states. "We are applying our own methodology to all member states and we believe our methodology is right," she said. "We treat all countries in the same way."

Germany last Friday (9 February) announced that it would reduce its own proposed emission cap by 12m tonnes, in line with Commission demands. The German energy ministry had earlier considered legal action against Commission requests for a 6% cut in the 465m tonne annual allowance requested by Berlin.

One senior Commission source said the EU executive had scaled back CO2 emission reductions for the car industry, outlined in a communication last week, in return for German concessions on the NAP.

But Environment Commissioner Stavros Dimas denied there had been a trade-off between the car targets and emission trading.

A Commission decision on the reduced German emission quota is expected before the end of the month. The environment department spokeswoman said she was confident that therevised NAP would be approved.

European Commission decisions on national caps for carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions discriminate unfairly against new member states, according to Latvia and Slovakia.