The European commission today denied reports that there could be double counting of more than 18 million EU allowances for the years 2005 and 2006.
"The commission has verified and can confirm that the number of allowances put out of circulation (retired) in 2005 and 2006 corresponds to the number of verified emissions reported by companies in 2005 and 2006," the commission said in an e-mailed statement Friday.
Consultancy E3 International yesterday said they had analysed allowances given up, or surrendered, during the first two years of the EU emissions trading scheme, and had found 238 cases of blocks of allowances with identical serial numbers that had been surrendered by companies.
The 238 cases affected 385 installations in Europe and added up to around 18 million allowances. In addition, several hundred cases of the same phenomenon appeared in the Italian registry.
“We cannot say for sure that the allowances have been double-counted. There is something very odd going on. If you have a scheme and identical allowances are surrendered several times, it does not make any sense,” E3’s Andy Kerr told Point Carbon yesterday....MORE
