In the wake of the alleged thefts, which struck the Austrian carbon registry on Tuesday and the Czech carbon registry on Wednesday, the EU imposed a week-long freeze on its €72 billion ($97 billion) emission trading market.
The freeze is currently set to expire on 26 January 2011. Officials have said that its likely the reopening of the market will be a member by member process as each registry proves it has sufficient security measures in place.
The EU will reopen its 72 billion euros emissions trading scheme step by step, as each registry proves its security, a senior official said after the bloc froze spot trade due to possibly concerted permit thefts by hackers.
As of Thursday morning, the investigation of the incidents was ongoing, and a final, definitive explanation of what had occurred was not forthcoming.
“For us at this stage, it is theft, not sabotage,” said EU spokeswoman Maria Kokkonen during a session with reporters. “It could be possible that it is concerted action, because the recent incidents, they happened within the last five days.”
The EU has pioneered the carbon trading market, which allows manufacturers, power companies and other producers of carbon dioxide to buy and sell Europe-wide emissions permits. It was designed to cap greenhouse gas emissions. Under the scheme, companies buy carbon permits if they need to produce more emissions, and can sell them if they produce less.
A major overhaul of the system has long been planned for 2013 to include new sectors and limit the number of allowances given out for free.
In recent months, however, the system has suffered repeated setbacks. In November, €24 million ($32.3 million) worth of allowances were stolen from the account of Holcim Ltd., the Swiss cement maker, at the Romanian National Registry for Greenhouse Gases.
In a written statement, European Commission said it will make another announcement early next week on the status of the free and the investigation.
“The commission will proceed to determine together with national authorities what minimum security measures need to be put in place before the suspension of a registry can be lifted,” the statement said.
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