NEW opportunities for industry, commerce and consultants have been opened up by the Government’s strengthened support for emissions trading, outlined in its Energy Review this month.

For the past 18 months, some 12,000 large industrial plants in the EU have been able to buy and sell permits to release carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. The EU emissions trading scheme enables companies exceeding their CO2 emissions targets to buy allowances from greener ones. Investments in cleaner technologies can then be turned into profits while helping the EU to meet its Kyoto commitments on climate change.

“The trading of CO2 emissions could provide some of the funding for the new generation of nuclear power stations that the Government review supported,” says Kieron Brennan, managing director, energy and utilities, at LogicaCMG. “Carbon trading could help to make nuclear power economic.”

Announcing the review, Alistair Darling, the Trade and Industry Secretary, said that consultations would begin in the autumn on extending compulsory emissions trading to the commercial sector, including supermarket chains and banks. That could provide an opportunity for them to make further profits but is more likely to cost them money as they seek expert advice on reducing emissions.

Eight UK organisations, including the BSI standards group and LRQA, part of the Lloyd’s Register Group, have benefited from the EU scheme by being appointed to verify emissions in Britain. Others are working with newer EU member states to help them to cope with the scheme.

LogicaCMG, for example, has set up the Czech national emissions registry and is operating the technology for it from a data centre in Prague. The registry handles allowances, transactions and settlements and link with other European systems. Companies will be able to access it through the internet.

The opportunities for UK companies were underlined by the results of the first year of the EU scheme which questioned the stringency of emissions caps in some member states.

Compliance in the UK, however, has been excellent and ministers have praised the “significant effort from all industries covered by the scheme and by the verifiers and regulators involved”.