Bulgaria back in Kyoto carbon trading: ministry

(SOFIA) - Bulgaria has managed to regain its accreditation for carbon emissions trading, revoked last year for failure to meet UN gas-recording requirements, the environment ministry said Saturday.

The decision was taken at a meeting of the UN Compliance Committee of the Kyoto Protocol in the German city of Bonn, which had to review Bulgaria's request to be allowed back into the trade of sovereign pollution rights under Kyoto.

"This re-opens the possibility for joining the European trade in (pollution) credits and (surplus) rights under Kyoto," the ministry said in a statement.

Bulgaria was suspended from Kyoto trading in June 2010 after checks found serious deficiencies in its system for recording greenhouse gas emissions.

This deprived Bulgaria of its right to sell an annual 40 million surplus sovereign pollution rights under Kyoto -- known as Assigned Amount Units or AAUs -- which were expected to generate up to 500 million leva ($347 million, 250 million euros) and which the government was counting on to battle the budget deficit.

It also jeopardised the plans of some 130 industrial companies to trade their surplus carbon credits -- the so-called EU Allowances (EUAs) -- which the European Commission had just approved last April.

The ministry said Saturday it had implemented "a range of fundamental measures for reforming and strengthening" the national gas recording system.

Under the Kyoto Protocol, Bulgaria agreed to cut its CO2 emissions by 8.0 percent compared to their 1988 level and emit no more than 130 million tonnes of CO2 a year.