Berlin Bows to EU
February 9, 2007
"We accept the demands of the EU to show that we support the European system of (emissions) exchange certificates," the minister said in an interview in die tageszeitung published on Friday.
German industry officials were less than pleased about the announcement.
"It's going to cost companies and citizens a lot," German industry association spokesman Thomas Huene told the paper.
The European Commission -- the executive arm of the European Union -- was pressing for Berlin to accept a yearly emissions cap of 453 million tons of carbon dioxide, blamed for global warming, to align with the Kyoto Protocol for the period 2008-2012.
Germany, Europe's largest economy, wanted the limit set at 465 million tons.
"Germany had a different basis for its calculations but at the end of the day there is only a 2 percent difference," Gabriel said.