Mittal to get 1 bn from carbon credits

Indian steel tycoon Lakshmi Mittal will get a 1 billion pound windfall from a European scheme to curb global warming. His company Arcelor Mittal,the worlds leading steel empire,of which he is the chairman and chief executive,will make the gain on carbon credits given to it under the European Emissions Trading Scheme ETS. The scheme grants companies permits to emit CO2 up to a specified cap. Beyond that they must buy extra permits. An investigation has revealed that ArcelorMittal has been given far more carbon permits than it needs. It has the largest allocation of any organisation in Europe. The company can sell the excess carbon permits priced at about 12.70 each or store them for future use. Either way the company will have gained assets worth around 1 billion by 2012,The Sunday Times has reported.

The disclosure comes on the eve of the Copenhagen climate conference,whose main aim is to extend schemes such as the ETS into a global system for trading carbon.

Anna Pearson,an expert on the ETS who carried out the analysis said: Between 2008 and 2012 ArcelorMittal stands to gain assets worth 1 billion at todays prices for scant effort. A spokesman for the company said: The extra surplus arose when actual steel production fell way below forecasts because of the unexpected global economic crisis. As the world returns to growth,we expect to use them up.