Minister of Economy Adriean Videanu said yesterday that the Executive would agree that the funds obtained from selling these CO2 emission rights to partially finance the future state energy giants, which are to appear effectively no earlier than June 2010. Attracting financing from selling “clean air” has so far been applied by several thermo-electric plants, such as those in Iaşi, Braşov, Suceava, and Oradea.
The Deputy Mayor of Braşov, Adrian Gabor, said that this strategy is not beneficial in the long-run. “It is a good option only if you are lacking funds and have many debts to pay. However, in the long-run, this is not viable. A time will come when we will be forced to buy these certificates ourselves,” Gabor said.
Ion Dina, Coordinating Manager of the Romanian Heating and Power Association (COGEN), said that the timing is all wrong, and that 2009 is not a good year for selling these certificates. “Personally, I do not believe that this is a good time for such a transaction, because prices are very low. There are many energy companies that are interested in buying, especially now, as prices are low,” Dina indicated.
Sagacarbon SA France, Vertis Environmental Finance Hungary are two of the companies interested in such acquisitions. Nevertheless, the Ministry of Environment has already drafted an emergency ordinance to provide the legal framework for the sale of pollution rights by Romania’s government. So far, of all the thermo-electric plants, the one located in Iaşi has managed to obtain the best price for CO2 emission certificates, at €14 per unit.
