Step closer to emission agreement

The Polish Prime Minister, Donald Tusk, met French President Nicolas Sarkozy in Paris on Thursday to discuss the EU's plan to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 20 percent by 2020, according to Tusk a deal in December has come closer.

Earlier in the week, the Polish government said it planned to issue carbon emission permits under the EU's Emissions Trading Scheme. Poland has been worried that the package will harm the economy. The European Commission had not set an approval date and permits cannot be issued without its permission. "I must say our points of view are very close to each other now," Tusk told a news conference. "We are without doubt much closer to success at the December meeting than only a few weeks ago."

EU heads of state will meet in December to vote on the final EU climate package.

Earlier in the week, Polish government has said that there has been progress on Warsaw's proposal to introduce upper and lower limits on the price of permits to emit CO2. "The detailed division is ready, it is hard to say when we will release it. We want to do it fast, we may do it this week," Jacek Jaskiewicz, the deputy director of Poland's climate change department, told Reuters.

Analysts fear that if Poland releases these permits, there might be an oversupply in the market, lowering the prices for permits. (RG)