According to the draft the National register of anthropogenic emission and absorption of greenhouse gases (further – National register) is introduced and kept with the purpose of ensuring of introduction, accounting, storage, transfer, receipt, cancellation and withdrawal of carbon units, in particular emission reduction units (ERU), certified emissions reductions (CER), Assigned amounts units (AAU) and units of rights on the emissions of greenhouse gases (per analogy with EUA – Emissions Allowances in EU).

National register keeps accounts for the state as well as operators of installations for the purposes of transfer of AAU and for participation in “emissions trade” (trade with rights on emissions of greenhouse gases, emission reduction units and other derivatives).

Further inventory of emissions of greenhouse gases shall be performed on state and regional level. First regional inventory have to be completed till January 1, 2012.

Operators of installations which emit greenhouse gases have to register all their installations with the National cadastre of anthropogenic emission and absorption of greenhouse gases till January 1, 2013. After that special reports on monitoring of emissions are to be submitted annually.

The most important notion is probably that operators of installations which emit greenhouse gases have the right for such emission only within the established limit. Such limit has to be defined by a National Plan of allocation of rights on the emission of greenhouse gases. Allocation of rights is based on the idea of stage-by-stage passing to the newest energy-saving technologies for to the types of activity, related to the emission of greenhouse gases. Such distribution will start from January 1, 2013 and only for those installations which are registered with the National cadastre of anthropogenic emission and absorption of greenhouse gases. 1 “unit” of right on emission of greenhouse gases is 1 metric ton of CO2 and shall be equal to 1 AAU.

Emission rights trading is realized on stock exchange in form of futures.

Generally the draft law aims on introduction of EU-like emissions trading system which is a very progressive idea for Ukraine. Draft law is based on ideas of Kyoto Protocol which is supposed to be followed by new analogue regulation. But even in absence of such regulation envisaged measures for reduction of emissions of greenhouse gases within the territory of Ukraine will be a great environmental achievement and necessary step towards European integration of Ukraine.
Despite such progressive ideas the draft law is unfortunately far away from ideal, starting from the title which does not describe the idea of the law and ending with wording full of mistakes and stylistics defects and therefore requires enormous improvements before final approval of the draft.

Part of the draft law defining authorized bodies shall contain an exhaustive list of bodies. It is also unclear whether a new authority will be established to be in charge of concerned issues or the law refers to an already existing authorized body. For instance, according to current legislation issues on pollution of the environment shall be in sphere of competence of the Ministry of Environmental Protection of Ukraine.

In general draft law gives plenty of new definitions and mechanisms which require adoption of new procedures. But there is no need to invent the bicycle once more. One might easily invite experts who have a deep understanding of the EU emission trading system and let them adapt these regulations to Ukrainian reality.

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