Britain is the first EU member to publish its NAP in preparation for the EU emissions trading scheme, which commences in 2005. The Department of Environment and Rural Affairs (Defra) has published the plan for consultation. It proposes a 16.3% reduction in CO2 emissions by the end of phase one of the EU ETS in 2008, and 20% by the end of phase two in 2012. Both targets are more ambitious than the UK's Kyoto target of a 12.5% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions. "We have set the overall number of allowances for UK industry at a level which moves us beyond our Kyoto Protocol commitment towards our tougher national goal and which recognises the need to preserve the competitive position of UK industry," said UK environment secretary Margaret Beckett.

Under the draft, the UK plans to allocate 94.3% of its CO2 allowances to existing installations. The remaining 5.7% would form a "reserve" for new installations that become operational between 2005 and 2008, and would be split over the three years. Any allowances left in this reserve at the end of each year would be auctioned off, it said.

The UK has decided that power generators should be able to deliver "additional" emissions trading benefits beyond the UK's climate change plan. "This reflects the fact that this sector faces relatively little competition and is thought to have relatively large scope to low cost abatement opportunities," it said. "Annual allocations have therefore been adjusted downwards by an increasing amount each year so that by the end of the first phase (2007), their allocations are 2.75-mil mt below the trade ministry's projections." The draft is open to consultation with submissions required by Friday Mar 12. Details are available on the Defra website at www.defra.gov.uk/environment/climatechange/trading/eu/index.htm.

More details were published in European Power Alert.