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Empresas y finanzas

German ministry sees EUA allocation within days


    FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Germany may receive permission from Brussels to issue carbon emission permits to its industry for 2008 within days, the environment ministry said on Wednesday.

    "It is up to the Commission to allocate us the certificates. We are in talks about this with Brussels and hope that these can be concluded within the next few days," it said in a written response to Reuters.

    "We are making very good headway," it added.

    The European Union's executive Commission last week approved a link between the EU's emissions trading scheme with those under the Kyoto Protocol after months of technical delays, clearing the way for EU industry to import cheaper carbon offsets from clean energy projects overseas.

    It also confirmed Germany's overall annual emissions quota of 451.8 million tonnes which 1,625 industrial polluters will receive in the form of EUAs.

    Carbon registry DEHST, which acts on behalf of the ministry, said on Tuesday it had been ready to hand out the European carbon emission rights called EUAs last Friday but could not go ahead because of a missing piece of authorization for the volumes given to individual polluters.

    Carbon traders worry if there are further delays, there might not be enough EUAs issued to settle December 2008 contracts on the main settlement dates in December, especially as Italy and Poland have not issued their EUAs either.

    (Reporting by Vera Eckert; editing by James Jukwey)