Steel tycoon Lakshmi Mittal’s Arcelor Mittal steel company will get a £1 billion ($1.7 billion,
Rs. 7,660 crore) windfall from a European scheme to curb global warming under the "carbon credits" given to it.
The carbon credits under the European emissions trading scheme (ETS) grants
companies permits to emit CO2 up to a specified "cap". Beyond that they must buy extra permits.
ArcelorMittal has been given far more carbon permits than it needs, and has the largest allocation of any organisation in Europe. The company will have gained assets worth around £1 billion by 2012, The Sunday Times reported on Sunday.
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 today's prices for scant effort.”