EU member states have distributed 71% of the 750.9 million EU carbon allowances to be allocated for free to industrial emitters this year under the bloc’s carbon market, data published Thursday by the European Commission showed.

Spain and Italy, the two largest emitting nations to have not started to hand out EUA quotas to industry, made up the bulk of the still unallotted 215.1 million units.

Italy is expected to hand out just under 70 million free allowances to help cover its industrial manufacturers’ 2016 emissions, while Spain will allocate around 59 million, the data showed.

Finland and Croatia were the only other governments to have not started to allocate EUAs, while the UK, Romania, and Hungary have only distributed around 60-70% of their anticipated totals.

Germany has dished out 129.6 million out of its quota of 154.4 million, while the rest of the EU member states have issued 90% or more of their national allocations.

The data release gives the first official glimpse into how governments are progressing in their free carbon permit hand-outs.

Market participants watch the allocations closely as they can weigh on prices should some companies in need of cash decide to sell parts of their allowance inventories upon receiving them.

The Commission said it would publish an update to the figures in two weeks’ time.

By Mike Szabo – mike@carbon-pulse.com