Bulgaria may have its carbon emissions trading rights under the Kyoto Protocol restored by the United Nations in the next few weeks, a spokesman of the Environment Ministry has said.

Bulgaria has met all the conditions to end a ban imposed by the UN on June 30 for failing to pass appropriate climate legislation in time and provide an emissions inventory for 2007 and 2008, Environment Ministry spokeswoman Katya Shavuleva told Bloomberg agency in a phone interview.

The ban extended to Bulgarian companies selling carbon permits in the European Union emissions-trading system, as well.

"The obligatory assessment by international experts was very positive," Shavuleva said. "Bulgaria has met all the requirements. Our expectation is to have the Kyoto accreditation restored by the end of the year."

The United Nations Compliance Committee of the Kyoto Protocol confirmed at the end of June a previously expected measure effectively prohibiting Bulgaria from trading with greenhouse gas emission quotas.

Thus, the Kyoto Protocol Committee upheld its preliminary conclusion from May 12, 2010, about revoking Bulgaria's accreditation for participating in the Protocol mechanisms including the trade with carbon emission quotas.

The decision is based on a UN report from 2009 under the Framework Convention on Climate Change has exposed "devastating" flaws, in the words of Bulgarian Environment Minister Nona Karadzhova, of Bulgaria's National System for Evaluation of the Greenhouse Gas Emissions.

The initial report was drafted in April 2009, whereas its findings were confirmed in a subsequent inspection in Bulgaria by the Compliance Committee in September 2009, which also registered the fact that the recommendations made in the report were not followed up by the Bulgarian authorities.

The sitting of the Compliance Committee of the Kyoto Protocol in Bonn, Germany, on June 28, however, has led to mitigating the conditions of the ban in favor of Bulgaria, granting the country a more favorable and faster procedure for restoring its accreditation under the Protocol mechanisms.

Thus, Bulgaria is entitled to provide improved information about its National System for Evaluation of the Greenhouse Gas Emissions, and to request a new inspection on part of the UN at a time that would be convenient for its better performance.

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