2012-12-06
National Audit Office: Lithuania meets international GHG emission reduction targets
The National Audit Office conducted an audit of the scheme for allocation, use and trading of greenhouse gas (GHG) emission allowances, which is part of an international audit of the scheme for greenhouse gas emission allowance trading carried out together with the supreme audit institutions of Denmark, Latvia, Poland, Norway, and Finland. Auditor General Giedrė Švedienė commented on the audit report as follows: “In 2010 Lithuania reduced its annual GHG emissions by 56.9 per cent as compared to the base amount in 1990. This shows that the obligations taken under international documents are being met. However, the Ministry of Environment failed to remove recurring inaccuracies in its annual national emission inventory reports in due time, therefore Lithuania was subjected to sanctions. As a result, operators could not trade in emission allowances and Kyoto units with foreign countries from the end of 2011 until October 2012 and were not able to receive funds for the Special Climate Change Programme.”
The National Sustainable Development Strategy points out the target to ensure that GHG emissions increase at least twice slower than the growth of the national gross domestic product (GDP). Lithuania has been meeting this target – in the period 2005-2010 GDP grew by 27.2 per cent, meanwhile GHG emissions decreased by 10.1 per cent. Nevertheless, the country needs to invest in GHG emission mitigation measures, although possibilities of the state and operators are limited.
The auditors established that in the period 2008-2011 31.3 million allowances were allocated to operators; however, the operators did not use all allowances and today there is 7.4 million surplus of allowances because of decrease in the country's GDP, increased electricity import, and due to the fact that emissions did not increase to the planned extent. The operators were given an opportunity to earn income from the sale of the surplus of allowances and were obligated to use the funds to reduce pollution. However, there have been cases when the funds received from the sale of allowances were used to implement measures which are not directly related to GHG emission reduction as well as cases of failure to report on the use of the funds in a timely manner and to provide accurate data in the reports.
Lithuania planned to receive more than LTL 500 million from the sale of Kyoto units for the Special Climate Change Programme, but the amount received from 2011 to July 2012 was only LTL 250 million. Also, only LTL 0.2 million were used due to delay in project preparation. As a result, implementation of projects on GHG emission reduction has been postponed for a later period.
The audit report states that companies at present lack additional information on the joint implementation reserve, possibilities to develop such projects and on saleable pollution reduction units, which has resulted in failure to use the joint implementation reserve and part of intended assigned amount units.
The National Audit Office provided recommendations to the Ministry of Environment designed to reduce GHG emissions.