http://www.euractiv.com/en/climate-environment/eu-tweaks-co2-emissions-cap-2013-news-499136

The European Commission has revised the EU's greenhouse gas emissions cap under its emissions trading scheme for 2013 in order to accommodate new sectors such as aluminium and petrochemicals.

The new cap announced on Friday (22 October) was set at 2.039 billion tonnes. It exceeds the 1.927 billion allowances set last July as it takes into account the extension of the scheme's scope post-2012.
The emissions trading scheme (EU ETS), the EU's flagship climate protection instrument, was extended to include new sectors like aluminium, ammonia and petrochemicals as well as new greenhouse gases, nitrous oxide (N2O) and perfluorocarbons from 2013.
Factories carrying out activities in these areas will therefore join around 11,000 industrial installations and power plants that are already required to purchase emission permits for each tonne of carbon they emit.
Some "marginal fine-tuning" will likely also take place as more new entrants come to the market before the end of 2012 or if emission-reduction projects fail to generate offset credits under the Kyoto Protocol's flexible mechanisms, the EU executive said. The final figures may therefore not be available before 2013, but any updates until then will only slightly adjust the overall quantity available, it added.
The cap will be lowered annually by 1.74% of the average annual total allowances in the second trading phase between 2008 and 2012. In absolute terms, this now translates into a reduction of 37,435,387 per year, the Commission said.
The cap still excludes aviation, to be included into the scheme from 2012, for which a separate cap will be set.
The cap is based on the EU's self-imposed legal obligation to cut its greenhouse gas emissions by 20% below 1990 levels by 2020. This would require ETS installations to make 21% cuts compared to 2004 levels, the revised ETS directive specifies.
However, the EU is now debating the option of raising the target to 30% as the Commission and some member states no longer regard the current goal as an incentive for companies to invest in low-carbon technologies. EU emissions have already fallen by 17% due to the recession, according to the latest figures.
The ETS cap would have to be revised upwards should the EU agree on raising the overall 2020 target, the Commission said.