Hungary links to Kyoto emissions trading scheme

By Michael Szabo

LONDON (Reuters) - Hungary successfully linked to a carbon trading scheme under the Kyoto Protocol on Friday, allowing the country to sell government-level emissions permits, a Hungarian ministry spokesperson said.

Countries wanting to trade permits for climate-warming carbon dioxide emissions internationally are required to link their emissions registries to a UN-backed system called the International Transaction Log (ITL).

"I can confirm Hungary has connected to the ITL for AAU trading only," the spokesperson for Hungary's Ministry of the Environment and Water Management said, referring to the government-level credits.

Trade in Assigned Amount Units, which allows industrialized countries comfortably below their Kyoto targets to sell the difference to other industrialized nations, has attracted controversy since the credits are not necessarily related to any emissions cuts.

Hungary is well within its targets under Kyoto and can potentially sell over 100 million AAUs by 2012, each one allowing other countries to emit a tonne of carbon dioxide.

A senior Hungarian government official on Tuesday told Reuters that Hungary will have two national emissions registries, one connected to the European Union's Emissions Trading Scheme, the 27-nation bloc's flagship weapon to fight global warming, and one connected to the ITL.

Hungary will have only one government account at the registry connected to the ITL, and its only purpose will be to sell AAUs, he added.

"We are not allowing any CER or ERU transactions for the time being," the official said, referring to the clean energy project offsets traded under Kyoto's Clean Development Mechanism and Joint Implementation schemes.