Environmental Leader

The European Commission has cut allowances for the amount of carbon dioxide industry in Belgium and the Netherlands can release from 2008 to 2012, saying the EU needed to have fewer carbon permits for its emissions trading plan to succeed, The Associated Press reports.

Dutch emissions will be capped at 85.8 million metric tons of carbon dioxide, five percent below what Amsterdam had asked for.

Belgium will have to cap emissions at 58.5 million metric tons of carbon dioxide, seven percent below what the government wanted.

An EU executive said it was policing national plans to create the scarcity needed for carbon trading to work.

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