The Paper Federation has called for compatibility between any scheme introduced in the UK and EU regulations.
The Federations director of business affairs, Graham Barnard, said initial reports indicated that the scheme, which from 2005 will cap the amount of CO2 emissions factories and power plants can make, appeared to differ between the UK and the EU.
He said that there were concessions in countries such as Germany, where ministers had agreed to implement a reduced level of fines for companies that failed to reached their emission targets, and had also agreed sector-wide emission targets.
Barnard said the Federation had two main concerns over the emissions trading scheme, which will be subject to final approval by the European Parliament.
The first is that the trading scheme places caps on emissions, as our industry is growing at 2% per year. The second, he said, was why the scheme should differ for EU countries, particularly when the UK pulp and paper industry was already viewed as a green-efficient industry.
The scheme could also mean that several large printing companies aligned with the BPIFs climate change levy (CCL) scheme could look at buying carbon credits as part of their quota.
Emissions trading is part of the EUs drive to cut greenhouse gases to 8% below 1990 levels by 2012, as required under the United Nations Kyoto Protocol on global warming.
Industry sectors will be able to buy and sell emission credits en bloc, rather than having to trade individually.
Story by Andy Scott
