Isra-Mart srl : EU carbon registries still closed

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Isra-Mart SRL news:

The national registries for EU carbon trading permits remain closed 12 days after thefts by hackers forced their closure by the European Commission. Some may be allowed reopen this week, EU Climate Commissioner Connie Hedegaard said on Friday, but those identified as not up to scratch on security may stay closed for some time.

The Commission closed the registries to market transfers of EUA emissions permits on January 19 for at least a week as news came to light that security of the online registry systems had been breached in the Czech Republic, Austria and Greece. Over a million EUAs have been reported stolen by Czech emitters and around two million overall are missing worth up to €30 million.

Greek police say they have traced the illegal access back to IP addresses in Romania and that Interpol is investigating further.

The registry closures have halted spot trade in EUA permits but futures trade, accounting for the bulk of the EU carbon market, is not affected. Each member country of the EU must file a report detailing security measures to Brussels before it’s registry can reopen.

Hedegaard moved to counter questions over the credibility of the carbon market following this latest fraud episode, reiterate that the fundamentals of the market are sound. “It’s not the system that is wrong,” Bloomberg reports Hedegaard saying. “Wherever you have financial assets of some kind, you can experience fraud. We see that in all sorts of other areas. Just because someone robs a bank, you do not say the whole banking system doesn’t work.”