The European Commission has given the Czech Republic the green light to hand out 20.6 million free EU carbon allowances to its utilities for their 2015 emissions, according to a notice published on the EU executive’s website.

The country, the first to receive approval this year, had a 2015 limit of 19.2 million EUAs under Article 10c of the ETS Directive, but due to under-allocations in previous years it was able to request additional free units to help its power sector decarbonise.

According to Carbon Pulse calculations and taking into account the latest figures, the Czech Republic is able to hand out around 922,500 EUAs above its limits through the rest of the decade.

The notice dated Oct. 5 shows that the Commission approved the Czech government’s request on Sep. 25, setting Sep. 28 as the earliest possible allocation date. It was not immediately clear whether the government had since handed out those allowances.

In order to be approved to make these so-called ‘derogation’ allocations, member states must submit a National Allocation Table to the European Commission, showing that their utilities have made, or have plans to make, the necessary infrastructure investments.

According to the Commission’s notice, the other six countries eligible to distribute free EUAs to utilities, predominantly Eastern European nations, had yet to submit their requests for the 2015 allocation.

By Mike Szabo – mike@carbon-pulse.com