EU reaches tentative agreement on CO2 emissions-trading deal

EU member states agreed in principle Friday to reforms aimed at curbing carbon dioxide emissions, which would increase the cost for companies to buy the "right to pollute." The decision, which followed months of wrangling, came a few days ahead of UN climate change talks in Warsaw aimed at moving closer to a global treaty to cut emissions, according to dpa. At present, the cost of permits allowing companies in the European Union to produce a set volume of carbon dioxide is considered too low, reducing the incentive for them to invest in modern filter technologies or similar means of reducing their emissions. The deal would withhold the auctioning of 900 million emission permits from the market until the later part of the decade with the aim of increasing the price of the permits already being traded.