Official calls for pollution quotas sale

Estonia's state-owned energy company Eesti Energia should sell a portion of the country's air pollution quota that will become redundant after renovation of the oil-shale Narva power plants (Narva Elektrijaamad), according to Valdur Lahtvee, head of Eesti Energia's environmental section.

The possibility of trading pollution quotas was provided for by the Kyoto protocol under which Estonia was obliged to reduce air pollution by 8 percent by 2008.

But although Estonia's pollution levels are now below the level stipulated by Kyoto, the government has refused to sell the unused portion of its quota in case of a boom in polluting industries, Lahtvee told the Eesti Paevaleht daily.

"The environment minister has said on a number of occasions that the quotas must be kept for a mystical economic boom to come in the future," Lahtvee said, adding that Russia and Latvia actively trade their pollution quotas.

Experts have estimated Estonia could earn more than 40 billion kroons ($2.35 billion) over the years 2008-2012 from selling quotas it is not using due to a decline in heavy industry since the end of Soviet rule.

"The extra cash of 78.6 million kroons earned from the sale of (Eesti Energia's) quotas would enable the company to either cut the size of loans to be taken for investment or make additional investments," Lahtvee said.