ABSTRACT
Under article 17 of the Kyoto Protocol, most industrialized countries and some economies in transition are permitted to sell ‘unused’ emission permits (assigned amount units: AAUs) to countries that exceed their agreed-upon emissions targets (see Lambert Schneider, section 4.3 above). 2 Slovakia, with average emissions for 2003–2007 that were 32 per cent lower than its 1990 Kyoto target, held a considerable amount of saleable emissions quotas by 2008. 3 In November of that year the Slovak government sold 15 million tonnes of its AAUs to Interblue Group, a US-based company headquartered in Washington state. 4 As a public resource, many would argue that these permits should have been sold transparently and at a fair market price. The Ministry of Environment, as the ministry responsible for allocating permits, chose not to organize any public tender or auction, however, and instead directly allocated the contract to Interblue. 5 When the media started questioning the transaction, in December 2008, it became clear that neither the contract nor the sale price was publicly available. 6
