NYT/IHT: New Limits on Pollution Herald Change in Europe (Kyoto)

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New Limits on Pollution Herald Change in Europe
By KATRIN BENNHOLD

Published: January 1, 2005
International Herald Tribune


For Peter Koster, the beginning of 2005 merits more than one glass of Champagne. Mr. Koster, the chief executive and founder of the European Climate Exchange, says he sees new rules on pollution as the dawn of a "new era for European business."

With the arrival of the new year, 12,000 industrial plants across the European Union will face new limits on their carbon dioxide emissions, the first step in putting into practice the requirements of the Kyoto Climate Protocol.

In February, Mr. Koster's exchange, the first mandatory carbon emissions trading market, will go live, formalizing a system aimed at fighting global warming.

The new regulations place limits on the amount of carbon that may be emitted by power, steel, cement and paper pulp plants. Companies that stay within their limits can sell the emission rights they have not used to those that have exceeded their carbon output quotas.

This ambitious experiment, spanning all 25 European Union countries, is intended to prepare them for the Kyoto treaty, which requires the nations that signed it to cut carbon emissions beginning in 2008. As a result of Russia's ratification of the treaty in October, it will go into effect in February....


http://www.nytimes.com/2005/01/01/business/worldbusiness/01climate.html