http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/03/14/us-eon-carbon-idUSBRE82D0NI20120314

 

(Reuters) - Germany's E.ON (EONGn.DE), a big carbon dioxide polluter, on Wednesday said its strategy for the next phase of the European Union emissions trading regime beginning in 2013 was to buy bit by bit.

 

"We have not bought up huge amounts as a precaution," chief finance officer Marcus Schenck said during a news conference on release of 2011 results for the group.

"We are prepared, we will normally buy in the market as and when we see what power from coal- and gas-fired power stations we are about to sell," he added.

The EU will move to full auctioning of CO2 emissions rights from next year, forcing emitters to raise spending on this central mechanism to battle climate change.

E.ON emitted 88 million tons of CO2 in Europe last year compared with 89 million in 2010, the annual report showed.

It received 81 million tonnes of CO2 emission rights in the current EU carbon trading phase which cuts these hand-outs gradually to speed carbon avoidance. In 2010, it had received 75 million tonnes.

Its carbon intensity, meaning how much CO2 is generated when producing one megawatt hour, worsened to 0.43 t CO2 per MWh in 2011 from 0.42 t/MWh in 2010 for the international group.

In Germany alone, this rose to 0.38 t/MWh from 0.32 t/MWh a year earlier because E.ON was forced under the government's hastier nuclear exit to switch off two nuclear power plants which were virtually free of CO2 emissions.