BIA POSITION AGAINST APPLYING THE MODEL PRIMES IN DEVELOPING THE NATIONAL PLAN FOR ALLOCATION OF ALLOWANCES FOR OF CO2 EMISSIONS

In a letter to ministers of finance, the environment and the economy BIA urges Bulgaria to ask for official information, review, change or renounce the use of modelsubstances for the determination of scenarios for development and contribution ofindividual Member States in reducing of greenhouse gases.

The reason for the letter is a publication of the newspaper "Financial Times" of07.11.2011 on the opacity of the model MATTER, its use as a basis for nationalenergy strategy, distribution quotas for trade in greenhouse gas emissions by 2012and 2020., Preparation of national strategic documents, etc. European EnergyRoadmap 2050.

According to "Financial Times" plans for the development of European energy by 2050, again based on the opaque and unreliable model PRIMES owned by theTechnical University of Athens. In turn, BUSINESSEUROPE urges the Commission to propose another, more transparent model for long-term programming.

Bulgarian Industrial Association - Union of Bulgarian business claims repeatedly expressed negative views on the model substances for the development of aNational Plan for the allocation of greenhouse gas emissions for 2008-2012 and2013-2020, the National Energy Strategy and National Strategy Papers "Europe 2020". This opinion was expressed at a meeting with the Commissioner of the Commission on Climate, Ms. Connie Hedegaard on May 13 this year.

The model is based on very restrictive parameters of the Bulgarian economy, energy utilization and reduce greenhouse gases. It is envisaged that a minimum 3%average annual growth of GDP by 2020. Enshrined in the national strategy papersStrategy "Europe 2020" and the national energy strategy. In this way implies a sharpincrease in electricity prices for household and industrial consumers since 2013. ,restricted to investments in low-and zero-carbon technologies with high economic and ekorezultatnost, creating conditions for the reproduction of so-called "energy poverty". The time to reach even the modest level of economic development (60% of GDP per capita in purchasing power parity against the European average) movesin a distant and uncertain prospects.

At expert level BIA required from the employees of the Technical University of Athensto provide basic information about reliability and objectivity of the scenarios for economic development and energy systems of Bulgaria during the technicalconsultations for adopting a national plan for allocation of emissions tradinggreenhouse gases (2007-2008). At that time it was denied information about input parameters and assumptions. Initial results for Bulgaria and Romania were not accepted and published officially. However, they were used by the Directorate General "Environment" of the European Commission led by Mr Stavros Dimas, the final allocation for Bulgaria and Romania. This prompted the then government to initiate action against the Commission in the Court of Justice in Luxembourg.

BIA again declares its firm opinion on the need for changes in the elaboration of strategic documents, incl. National Energy Strategy, which provides for modest growth in GDP, limiting opportunities to reach average European levels of economic development.

The letter to the three ministers was published in the attached file below!