Refineries, airlines phased into EU CO2 charges

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They would be gradually phased into permits auctioning, having to buy 20 percent of permits in 2013, rising to 100 percent in 2020.

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The European Commission proposed on Wednesday that oil refineries and airlines pay more over time for permits to emit greenhouse gases under the European Union's emissions trading scheme.

They would be gradually phased into permits auctioning, having to buy 20 percent of permits in 2013, rising to 100 percent in 2020.

"They will have a gradual increase, starting with 80 percent free allocation and decreasing in regular steps year by year until 2020," Commission spokeswoman Barbara Helfferich said.

She said the phase-in applied to all sectors covered by the EU's Emissions Trading Scheme except the power sector, which will have to buy 100 percent of permits at auction from 2013, and as yet unspecified energy-intensive industries, for which a special regime will be determined in 2010-2011.

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(reporting by Paul Taylor, editing by Gerard Wynn)