Emissions Quota
The total carbon emissions to be allowed to all Korean companies for the next three years has been fixed at 1,687 million tons. By industry, power generation, steel, and petrochemicals will hold the highest amounts.
The Ministry of Environment announced on Sept. 11 that a “National Emissions Quota Plan” has been finalized based on such content. The specific quota by each company will be announced mid-November. The government first determined the total quantity of emissions to be allocated to 526 companies from 2015 to 2017 at about 1,687 million Korean Allowance Units (KAU). KAU is the English name for emissions rights coined in Korea to manage the history and statistics of emission rights and distinguish Korean emission rights from foreign ones. The European Union (EU) uses EUA. One KAU is equivalent to one ton of CO2-eq when converted into greenhouse emissions units.
Among the entire emissions quota for three years, 1,598 million KAU is allocated to companies before the planned term, and the remaining 89 KAU will be kept by the government as backup to be additionally distributed during the planned term.
By year, the preemptive quota for 2015 is 543 million KAU, 533 million KAU in 2016, and 522 million KAU in 2017. Industries to receive the quota are divided into 23 categories which are identified as conversion, industrial, buildings, transportation, and waste management.
By industry, 735 million KAU is assigned to the power generation and energy sector, 304 million KAU to the steel (excluding processing) sector, 144 million KAU to the petrochemical sector, 128 million KAU to the cement sector, 56 million KAU to the refining sector, 26 million KAU to waste management, 242 million KAU to semiconductors (excluding processing) and 22 million KAU to paper manufacturing. On the other hand, mining, lumber, steel (F gas processing), and non-ferrous metal sectors are designated with the relatively less 720,000 KAU, 1,130,000 KAU, 190,000 KAU, and 200,000 KAU, respectively.
The government will finalize the emissions quota for each company at a joint working group (the President of Greenhouse Gas Inventory and the Research Center of Korea leading) consisting of industrial and academic professionals after receiving applications from 526 target companies from Sept. 15 to Oct. 14.