Romania lost the opportunity to get 3 billion euro out of the sale of emissions certificates surplus

Romania could have obtained 3 billion euro out of the trading of the carbon dioxide emissions certificates surplus, but this right was suspended for a nondefinite period due to the fact that the National Agency for the Protection of the Environment (ANPM) did not manage this sector correctly, according to a report of the Court of Auditors drawn up following the investigation made in Q1 2012. The report mentions the fact that Romania committed, in the Kyoto protocol, that between 2008 -2012, the quantity of carbon dioxide emitted annually by the pollutant companies be reduced by 8% against 1990, fact for which they were allocated 1,279,099 greenhouse gas certificates. They represented the right of Romania to emit, between 2008-2012 a quantity of 1,279,835,000 tons of carbon dioxide. At the date of the investigation, Romania had a surplus of certificates of 515,080,892 tons of carbon dioxide. At an estimated price of 6 euro per ton, the value of the surplus of certificates is 3.09 billion euro. ‘At the date of 27.08.2011, according to the final decision of the committee for conformity of the Kyoto Protocol (…) Romania had the right to trade internationally the greenhouse gas emissions certificates suspended, due to the lack of value of some indicators with national representation, fact which led to the impossibility to estimate the levels of specific emissions for the activity of the sectors INEGES (energy, industrial processes, agriculture, land use, change of land use and forestry – LULUCF and Waste) by the application of some methods of calculus specific to the superior levels of approach in the case of important categories’ the report of the Court of Auditors says. The experts of the institution mention that ‘ as a result of the suspension of Romania’s eligibility from the international trading of the greenhouse gases emission certificates,our country lost some opportunities offered by the market of certificates (the interest ofJapan, Spain and Germany to acquire greenhouse gas emissions certificates). As a result, the Court of Auditors says that, as a result of the investigation made at the National Agency for the protection of the environment, it was observed that not all measures had been taken to ensure and organise the material resources, financial and human resources to draw up the national inventory, including with regards to the collection of data for the estimate of the emissions level. Moreover,no consultancy services were contracted, studies and analyses for this, although ANPM had the possibility to do that. At the same time, although the greenhouse gas emissions certificates represent the trading rights of Romania to emit a certain quantity of greenhouse gases, these rights, with no nominal value, were not recorded and presented in the financial balance sheets drawn up by ANPM. ‘The consequence of non-recording in the accountancy documents the sum of 33,019,745,554 lei representing the estimated value of the intangible assets – the right for emission of 1,279,835,099 tons of CO2 allocated to Romania through the Kyoto Protocol was the inaccurate presentation of the accounting and the partrimony on 31.12.2011, as well as the financial situations which do not offer an accurate image of the position and financial performance of the company. As a result of the measure given by the decision of the Court of Auditors as well as due to the instructions received in the correspondence with the ministry of public finances, the countervalue of the greenhouse gas emissions certificates was recorded on 31.12. 2012 under account 8039 other values outside the balance sheet’, the report shows.