The EU executive announced it had approved eight national plans for sharing out emissions for energy-intensive industrial plants, a vital preparatory step for setting up a "carbon market" next January.

The plans cover 5,000 out of the estimated 12,000 plants in the 25-nation EU which are big emitters of CO2, the principal greenhouse gas blamed for driving climate change.

These plants include coal- and oil-fired power plants and heavy industries such as cement and glass manufacturers.

"Today's decision is a crucial step as it clears the way for almost half of the plants which will be part of the pan-European emissions trading system," Environment Commissioner Margot Wallstrom said in a statement.

"The decision shows that we are serious about our climate change policy and that we can start the emission trading the first of January next year, as planned."

Under the carbon market, CO2 emitters can buy or sell emissions of carbon in order to meet a pollution target.

Companies that are over their target can buy emissions from companies that are under their target. The idea is to provide a carrot and stick that will help the EU meet its overall emissions reduction.

The 5,000 plants will be able to trade in just over 40 percent of the emissions allowances that will be put in circulation.

Five of the eight national plans -- from Denmark, Ireland, the Netherlands, Slovenia and Sweden -- have been accepted unconditionally, the Commission said.

Technical changes are needed from the plans submitted by Austria, Britain and Germany, but once these have been done, the Commission will not require a second assessment.

The Commission added, though, that it was sending written warnings to Greece and Italy for having failed to submit their national allocation plans.

And 11 of the EU15 states -- all except Austria, France, Germany and Sweden -- would receive "second and final" warnings for having failed to transcribe the emissions trading directive, which they had agreed at EU level, into national law.

The modest aim of the Kyoto Protocol is to bring worldwide emissions of CO2 and five other greenhouse gases back to 5.2 percent below what they were in 1990, by between 2008 and 2012.

The 15 EU nations agreed overall to an eight-percent cut in emissions. They were given a deadline of March 31 to submit their national CO2 quota plans to the European Commission, after consulting the public by Internet.

The 10 new members that joined the bloc on May 1 had until April 30 to do so.

Despite the EU's defence of it, the Kyoto Protocol is in limbo at the moment.

The United States, a profligate consumer of fossil fuels and the biggest CO2 polluter in the world, walked away from the pact in 2001, in one of the first decisions made in office by President George W. Bush.

Kyoto can take effect under its complex ratification rules only if it is approved by the Russian parliament, but Russia officials have sent conflicting signals as to when, and even if, it will do this.

SPACE.WIRE