Hausse des émissions de CO2 de l'UE en 2006[en] 

The preliminary figures for 2006 show that 93%, or about 9,000-10,000 heavy industrial plants covered by the scheme - now in its second year of operation - recorded a 1%-1.5% overall rise in emissions. However, the amount of carbon emitted was less than the quota of pollution allowances.

The Commission wants to avoid a repitition of last year's crash when lower-than-expected emissions data for the first year of the EU-ETS sent carbon prices crashing (EurActiv 2/05/06). The EU executive has since taken a tougher stance, rejecting the overly-generous limits set out in national allocation plans for the next trading period (2008-2012). Germany and Poland, which count among the EU's three largest polluters, saw their plans tightened by Brussels regulators over the past months (EurActiv 27/03/07, EurActiv 12/2/07).

The ETS's credibility relies on creating a scarcity in the market for pollution allowances, which in turn leads to high carbon prices and incentives for companies to cut emissions.

The spot price of a tonne of carbon fell by about a quarter to €1 upon release of the news, however the Commission pointed to a rise in the future price of carbon for 2008 to €17 a tonne.

The Commission also announced on 2 April 2007 that it would accept Austria's national action plan (NAP) as long as it reduced its proposed amount of allowances by 6.4%. Austria is the 18th country to have its plan approved.

Environment Commissioner Stavros Dimas said: "The Commission is assessing all national plans in a consistent way to ensure equal treatment of member states and to create the necessary scarcity in the European carbon market. This is how we have assessed the plan decided today, and the same standards will be applied to all others."

Chris Davies, Liberal Democrat environment spokesman in the European Parliament, said that the rise in emissions is "disappointing, but hardly surprising...the operation of the EU emissions-trading scheme is a success but it will not start to bite until national caps on carbon emissions are firmly in place, and for that we must wait until 2008 at the earliest".

Full verified data for 2006 will not be published until 15 May, according to the Commission.