News | Energy Efficiency

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/05/18/us-carbon-eib-idUSTRE74H4WR20110518

(Reuters) - The European Union has delayed by one month a vote that would allow the European Investment Bank (EIB) to raise about five billion euros ($7.1 billion) to support innovative low-carbon technologies.

The European Commission said a meeting of the EU's Climate Change Committee would not vote on the release of 300 million carbon emissions permits to the EIB until mid-June.
If voted through, the decision would be submitted within one month to the European Parliament and EU member governments for their approval, a scrutiny process that might take a further 3 months.
Formal adoption would take place 2 to 3 weeks after that, allowing the permits to pass to the EIB, which previously said it would start selling the permits within one month of receiving them.
The sale date is important to carbon market participants, given it is equivalent to about 15 percent of the entire quota of permits, or European Union Allowances (EUAs), allocated to polluters in any one year.