Lithuania might ask the branch to reconsider its decision by 31 July, the icis.com portal reports adding that Vilnius is likely to appeal.
Last December, the UN's Kyoto Protocol Compliance Committee sanctioned Lithuania for a breach of reporting rules and suspended permission for the country to trade in carbon emission rights. The panel then said that Vilnius had six months to correct inaccurate data provided in a report on the 2008 emission allowances market.
Meanwhile, Lithuania’s Environment Ministry claims that the country has already taken measures to improve its national system for greenhouse gas reporting and UN experts admitted in preliminary findings on the 2011 report that the information provided in that document was more comprehensive compared with the 2010 report.
The Lithuanian government plans to generate 297.45 million litas (EUR 86.2 m) in receipts on the sale of emission allowances this year but actual revenues received between January and June made up meager 45.05 million litas. Last year, the country raised just over 200 million litas through the sale of carbon dioxide emission credits, far below its 500-million-litas target.
Emission allowances shall be sold prior to 2013 as they will expire later.
Government to look into it
Prime Minister Andrius Kubilius promised that the government will look into why the UN has not lifted its suspension of Lithuania from trade in carbon credits.
"We will discuss this issue in the near future. It is an important issue for us. It is regrettable that no positive result was achieved," he told reporters.
The Ministry of Environment told BNS on Tuesday that the UN suspension was extended due to "procedural issues," adding that Lithuania will seek to have the measure lifted as soon as possible.
"We see no flaws, but what we need is that UN experts say that they see no flaws either and that they verify our calculations and conclude that these calculations are accurate and sufficient. We expect to submit that request in the next few days, without waiting for 31 July," Stasilė Znutienė, head of the Climate Change Policy Division at the ministry's Pollution Prevention Department, told Lithuanian Radio.
Znutienė said that they expect the UN experts to come up with their conclusions within two months. She said that Lithuania has not suffered any major losses due to the UN sanctions.
