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11
Dec

Germany To Distribute CO2 Vouchers Worth EUR3B To Airlines 2012-2020

-A German environment authority said Thursday it has begun notifying airlines around the world about how many carbon dioxide emission certificates they will receive for free each year, preparing the carriers for the inclusion of the aviation industry in the European Union’s cap and trade CO2 scheme from 2012.

In a written statement, the Federal Environment Authority–known as Umweltbundesamt–said that it will hand out some 42.8 million CO2 certificates for the year 2012, the first year that airlines are included in the EU’s CO2 emissions trading scheme.

In the 2013 to 2020 period the airlines will receive 40.5 million CO2 allowances per year, said the authority.

“These [CO2 emission rights] have a value of around EUR3 billion according to present market prices,” the Umweltbundesamt said.

A spokeswoman for the environment authority said that the notifications have been sent to some 130 airlines around the world. In total, Germany is responsible for overseeing the CO2 trading scheme for a total of 409 airlines, she added.

The number of notifications sent to airlines for now remains relatively low, as some have requested or have been granted exemption from the CO2 trade, the spokeswoman said. Others haven’t yet provided information necessary to determine how many CO2 rights they would receive free of charge.

The Umweltbundesamt Thursday declined to detail the allocation of CO2 allowances to individual airlines, but added that it plans to publish a list with this information on Dec. 23.
source: downjones