Spain may need to buy at least 355 million euros ($466 million) of carbon emissions permits to meet its obligations under the Kyoto Protocol, Agriculture Minister Miguel Arias-Canete said. The country will need at least 67 million metric tons of emissions permits to cover greenhouse gas emissions that exceed the volume allowed under the 1997 Kyoto agreement, Arias-Canete told a parliamentary committee last week. “The government needs a lot of permits,” the minister said. Its liabilities “are far higher than forecast by the previous government so the situation is really worrying.” Under the Kyoto Protocol, developed nations can meet their goals by buying so-called Assigned Amount Units from other countries with surplus permits, or by investing in emissions reductions in developing countries in exchange for carbon offsets. Spain has already spent about 750 million euros over the past five years accumulating emission permits and offsets after the economic boom that followed the Kyoto negotiations saw Spanish emissions overshoot. Spain’s 2010 greenhouse gas emissions are about 22 percent higher than they were in 1990 compared with a Kyoto-mandated ceiling of a 15 percent rise over 1990 levels by 2012, Arias-Canete said. United Nations carbon futures for December 2012 delivery gained 3.9 percent to 4.24 euros a ton on the ICE Futures Europe exchange at 4:45 p.m. in London.
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