Representatives of Poland's industrial businesses have reassured Europe that the country's entry to the EU's emissions trading scheme (ETS) will not provide an exogenous shock to the operations of the system.
Franciszek Pchelka, a deputy director of the Polish Plants Association which represents the electricity generating sector in the country, told the industry journal Platts that Poland will not have an excess of emissions allowances when it joins ETS on July 5.
The current members of ETS are eagerly awaiting the publication of 2005’s emissions data from Poland, which is being released later than that of most other countries already involved in the scheme. There is an expectation that the data will show a large surplus of emissions credits, which would mean that Poland – like several other member states – was over-generous in allotting allowances to its industry for the first phase of ETS.
However Platts’ report suggests that this may not be the case. I think that the 17 largest power plants in the country used between 96-97% of allowances in 2005, Mr Pchelka said.
The majority of plants used the full allocation they got or they were short of the allowances, he told Platts. Only the Polaniec plant in southern Poland and Dolna Odra near the seaport of Szczecin had a combined surplus of 3 million mt.