European Union carbon permits may advance in the next five months as 37 nations in the Kyoto Protocol consider tightening emission limits before 2020, according to Climate Mundial Ltd. in London.
Each industrialized country in the climate-protection agreement needs to provide United Nations officials by April 30 “information relating to its intention to increase the ambition of its commitment,” according to a decision agreed a year ago in Doha, Qatar. Kyoto’s second-commitment period, which runs from this year, sets nations’ emission limits until 2020 when a new treaty is set to start.
“The EU’s response to this will be very important to the carbon price, which might rise if there is any suggestion that the bloc could increase its pre-2020 level of ambition,” Daniel Rossetto, the managing director of Climate Mundial, said today in an e-mailed response to questions. “This may well have been overlooked somewhat in the discussions following” climate talks in Warsaw last week.
EU carbon for delivery in December has risen from a record low of 2.46 euros ($3.34) a metric ton on April 17 to close at 4.43 euros today on ICE Futures Europe in London. The contracts have slumped 38 percent in the past year.
UN envoys failed last week in Warsaw to agree on Ukraine’s greenhouse-gas cap through 2020, and gave themselves another seven months to set emission-limiting rules for the Kyoto extension, according to the European Commission in Brussels.
Kyoto will be the world’s biggest attempt to cap emissions. Its coverage will lead to what’s meant to be the world’s first global climate protection deal covering both emerging and industrialized countries.
Under Kyoto, the EU has said it will cut emissions to at least 20 percent below 1990 levels by 2020. Isaac Valero-Ladron, a climate spokesman for the commission, the EU’s regulatory arm, didn’t immediately respond to a request seeking more details of Europe’s contribution to the UN’s April 30 deadline.
