With cap and trade looming, Korean firms record 9.1% GHG increase

Output of greenhouse gases at 467 companies which will probably be in South Korea’s proposed carbon market starting in 2015 rose 9.1 percent in 2010 according to Bloomberg New Energy Finance.

Emissions rose to 515.5 million metric tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent from 472.7 million tonnes in 2009, London-based New Energy Finance said in a June 22 note published on its website, citing data from the Greenhouse Gas Inventory & Research Center of Korea in Seoul.

Emissions at Posco, the country’s largest steel-mill operator and biggest producer of greenhouse gases, jumped 13 percent to 73.5 million tonnes, New Energy said. That compares with 140.1 million tonnes last year for RWE AG (RWE), the Essen, Germany-based power utility that’s Europe’s biggest emitter.

South Korea approved a cap-and-trade system to cut greenhouse gases in May as President Lee Myung Bak seeks support for new restrictions on factories and power plants in the fastest-growing emitter among industrialized democracies.