Commit to emit

EU member states last month submitted national allocation plans to the European Commission outlining the number of emission permits they will hand out in the second phase of the emissions trading scheme. Dealers say the first phase has been a success - but there is still room for improvement. By Alexander Campbell

A great deal is riding on the success of the European emissions trading scheme (ETS). Set up after the European nations signed the Kyoto protocol in 2002, and starting operations in January 2005, the scheme is the largest of its type in the world and is being studied closely by other countries.

Jerome Malka, head of a recently founded and still-unnamed Societe Generale carbon trading joint venture with the French chemicals group Rhodia, comments: "The European ETS is a laboratory that everybody