The European Commission has delayed the startup of a single carbon registry for the European Union's emissions trading scheme until the second half of the year, as it needs more time to finalize preparations, it said on Wednesday. The Commission is hoping that a single EU-wide registry will improve the efficiency of the scheme and provide greater security following the theft of more than 3 million EU carbon permits from member state registries late last year and early this year.

      Operational since January 2005, the registries system takes account of all EU Allowances (EUAs) issued under the ETS and keeps track of the ownership of allowances in the same way as a banking system keeps track of the ownership of money.
The Commission said earlier this year it would close national carbon registries for an undisclosed period at the end of this year to prepare the system for a single registry to handle carbon transactions from 2012.

      "While substantial progress has been made in preparing for the transition, the Commission and member states have agreed that more time is needed to finalize preparations and to avoid any risk of interrupting the annually recurring compliance cycle," the Commission said on its website.

      As of January 30, 2012, the Commission will partially activate its single carbon registry to allow airlines to open registry accounts and receive free carbon permits by the end of February.

      "The full activation of the single registry, including the transfer of existing accounts from national registries, will not take place before June 2012," the Commission said.

      "Prior to the full activation of the single registry existing national registries will remain operational."

      The EU emissions trading scheme caps carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions on some 11,000 polluting power generators and industrial plants in 30 European countries, covering around half of the region's emissions.

      At the start of next year, caps will also be set for some 4,000 airlines operators landing in and taking off from the region - a plan that has sparked sharp criticism from the United States, China and others who say it breaches international law.