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Estonia 2011 CO2 Credits Sales Will Exceed Plan, Official Says
2011-01-21 12:48:34.508 GMT
By Ott Ummelas
Jan. 21 (Bloomberg) -- Estonia will exceed its plan to sell
spare United Nations carbon credits this year as previous
forecasts were too conservative, a senior government official
said.
The Baltic nation has estimated 2011 budget revenue of 25
million euros ($33.8 million) from the sales of emission
credits, assigned to the east European country under the 1997
Kyoto Protocol, Keit Kasemets, strategy director at the state
chancellery in Tallinn, said in a phone interview today. Estonia
sold 230 million euros worth of credits last year.
"We are much more optimistic than last summer, when we
made initial plans on emission sales, and will certainly sell
more than we planned," Kasemets said. "Still, as the markets
are becoming more cautious with uncertainties regarding the end
of period in 2012, we will likely remain below last year's
level."
Better-than-planned sales of its carbon-emissions quota
last year helped Estonia cut the state budget deficit to around
1 percent of gross domestic product, below the government's
forecast, Finance Minister Jurgen Ligi said earlier this month.
The government sees the budget deficit widening to 1.6 percent
of GDP this year.
Estonia's Environment Ministry in August 2009 proposed to
sell as many as 85 million metric tons of so-called Assigned
Amount Units, or AAUs, in the coming years by starting a Green
Investment Scheme, as part of efforts to boost budget revenue
hit by the second-worst recession in the 27-member European
Union. Such programs are designed to make sure the money is
spent on projects that curb greenhouse gases blamed for climate
change.
AAUs are assigned to developed and emerging nations that
have greenhouse-gas emission targets set as part of the
protocol. The Kyoto treaty allows countries with spare AAUs to
sell them to nations that have exceeded their quota.
For Related News and Information:
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Today's top power, energy news PTOP <GO>, ETOP <GO>
Top environmental news GREEN <GO>
Carbon market events calendar ECAL <GO>
--Editors: James M. Gomez, Alan Crosby
To contact the reporter on this story:
Ott Ummelas in Tallinn at +372-663-1128 or
oummelas@bloomberg.net;
To contact the editor for this story:
Willy Morris at +44-20-7673-2254 or
wmorris@bloomberg.net.
