Greece has failed to comply with the commitments it signed on to with its adoption of the Kyoto Protocol on reducing carbon dioxide emissions and faces a bill of at least 225 million euros by 2010.

According to the targets set for each country by the Kyoto Protocol, Greece was allowed to increase its carbon dioxide emissions by 25 percent from 1990 to 2010. It has already exceeded that target and it is now estimated that the increase will reach 38.4 percent in 2010, an excess of 15 million tons of carbon dioxide emissions (154 million tons instead of the targeted 139 million), for which Greece will pay a fine of 225 million euros at current prices. Those prices, set by the European Emissions Trading Scheme, are considered currently very low and will likely increase.

The Second National Emission Rights Distribution Plan (ESKDE), which must be submitted to the European Commission for approval by tomorrow further forecasts that, by 2015, CO2 emissions will have increased by 47.7 percent from 1990 levels and by 58.3 percent in 2020.

European Environment Commissioner Stavros Dimas warned last week that the Commission would reject country plans that fail to comply with the Kyoto Protocol’s targets.

Greenpeace’s Dimitris Ibraim, in charge of the international environmental group’s campaign on climate changes and energy, blasted the government plan saying it did nothing to reverse the CO2 emissions trend.