The EU and Switzerland have reopened talks on forming a single emissions trading scheme (ETS), a spokeswoman for EU climate commissioner Connie Hedegaard said today.
Negotiations between the EU and Switzerland on the integration of the Swiss ETS into the EU ETS originally started in March 2011, with the merger to be established by the summer of 2013. The expected start date was then delayed to 2016 as talks were expected to continue until June this year.
But discussions on the integration ended in February after a number of EU member states, including France and Germany, called for a review of relations, after Swiss voters decided in a national referendum to impose curbs on immigration from the EU.
Technical-level discussions took place over the summer and the first high-level meeting is scheduled for this month, the spokeswoman said.
Switzerland's cap-and-trade carbon scheme has been in operation since 2008, covering emissions of around 3mn t/yr CO2.
Under the Kyoto protocol, Switzerland has pledged to cut its greenhouse gas emissions by 20pc by 2020 against 1990 levels.
In February, the Swiss government set a CO2 emissions cap for the 55 industrial units participating in its scheme at 5.63mn t for the 2013 compliance year. The cap will fall by 1.74pc/yr to reach 4.9mn t in 2020.
Switzerland has also restarted negotiations with the European Commission to reach a bilateral electricity agreement.
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