The Government has approved the list of installations in Bulgaria that will participate in the European scheme for greenhouse gas emissions allowance trading from 2013, as well as the allowances allocated to each of them.

The list had to be presented to the European Commission by 30 September 2011 but it was much delayed and was not approved by the Bulgarian Government until 23 May 2012. 

The fact that it has now been approved has led to the suspension of proceedings against Bulgaria for failure to implement the EU emission allowance trading directive (2003/87/EC).

The amounts of allowance allocated to the installations are determined according to allocation rules that apply throughout the EU and are based on data submitted by the operators.  They are only preliminary allowances as they must be reviewed and approved by the EU Commission. 

The EU Commission can also apply a correcting factor to reduce the amount of allowances allocated to all installations where the total reported by all member-states exceeds the threshold of greenhouse gas emissions allocated to the EU.

The list is in a standard format for all member-states (as required by the European Commission) and contains three tables:

  • A list of additional installations, comprising those representing special cases and for which the European Commission will receive additional explanations;
  • A list of installations data, comprising all installations in Bulgaria that participate in the greenhouse gas emissions trading scheme and have been put into operation before 30 June 2011, together with the annual and aggregate amount of preliminary allowances allocated to each of them between 2013 and 2020 inclusive;
  • A list of sub-installations, comprising the sub-installations in each installation and the annual allowance allocated to each.

The idea behind the greenhouse gas emissions trading scheme is that the amount of free allowances will be gradually decreased, forcing the companies whose installations emit greenhouse gases either to reduce their emissions or pay for more allowances. This has already led businesses and trade unions to predict a rise in electricity prices once the allowances are allocated.  An additional factor is that most of the thermal power plants in Bulgaria do not have desulphurization installations yet.

The three companies with the largest allowances are the oil refinery, Lukoil Neftochim Bourgas, the construction materials factory, Devnya Cement, and the calcinated soda factory Solvay Sodi.

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The original publication date for this article was 08/06/2012.