Czechs to sell 31.5 mln more carbon rights by 2012

                                
 * Czechs plan to sell another 31.5 mln AAUs by 2012
                                
 * Have already sold 68.5 mln of 150 mln inventory
                                
 
                                
 By Robert Mueller
                                
 PRAGUE, Dec 7 (Reuters) - The Czech Republic plans to sell
31.5 million more sovereign carbon emissions rights by 2012 and
keep another 50 million to dole out to domestic companies, an
environmental ministry spokeswoman said on Monday.
                                
 The ministry did not disclose any specific details about
potential buyers or prices for its remaining Assigned Amount
Units (AAUs), which can be used by governments to meet emissions
targets under the Kyoto Protocol.
                                
 Under Kyoto, governments comfortably beneath their emissions
targets can sell the difference to other nations in the form of
AAUs.
                                
 In October, the Czech Republic signed deals with Spain and
Austria for around 8.5 million tonnes, bringing the year's total
to just under 69 million rights sold, and said more contracts
were under negotiation.
                                
 Officials had earlier said Prague expected to sell about 100
million tonnes of its 150 million AAU surplus to European
governments and private companies, and keep another 50 million
for Czech companies.
                                
 Critics call AAUs "hot air" on the grounds that most were
generated through restructuring in eastern Europe in the 1990s
when polluting industries in ex-communist countries were
shutting anyway, rather than by new investment in clean energy.
                                
 The biggest climate meeting in history opened in Copenhagen
on Monday with hosts Denmark saying an unmissable opportunity to
protect the planet was "within reach." [ID:GEE5B50GX]
                                
 With the Kyoto accord set to expire in 2012, the opaque AAU
market, which could be worth over 3 billion euros ($4.46
billion) this year, will stand trial in Copenhagen.
                                
 Eastern European countries are pushing for AAU banking under
a post-Kyoto agreement while the U.S. and western European
countries, who say it does not spur investment in clean
technology or energy efficiency, want it phased out.
  (Additional reporting by Michael Szabo; Writing by Michael
Kahn, Editing by William Hardy)