Estonia is due to take in over €200 million in revenue from European Union CO2 quota trading, by far its highest figure to date and some of which is to be used in alleviating soaring electricity and natural gas prices. The eventual figure will not be known until year-end, but is likely to be over a third more than budgeted for earlier this year.
0 >Ida-Viru County power station operated by private sector firm VKG. The large grey hill top right is a slag heap created by mining oil shale, which is then refined into oil to fuel power stations, a sector which saw major development in the Soviet era. Source: VKG.
The European Union s green policy on trading in Carbon Dioxide emissions allowances is likely to be tightened up in the near future, which is in turn likely to lead to a rise in the price of oil shale energy in the next five years. The sector dominates the economy of Ida-Viru County, but is coming under increasing political pressure due to conflicts with the union s environmental stance.