Legal aspects

Legal Aspects for CMM projects

General aspects

1.1.1.1 Tax situation

The local tax situation has to be explained, especially percentage of corporate profit tax, percentage of VAT, and can VAT be recovered by law and in reality, other taxes and customs duties, particularly tax exemptions applicable to CMM projects.

1.1.2 Implementation status of Kyoto Protocol

Although all countries have signed and ratified the Kyoto Protocol, the implementation speed has not been the same everywhere. Priorities vary from country to country and the allocation of resources naturally varies as well. A good indicator will be a count of how many CMM projects have actually been realized successfully. However, more important, than these official dates is the fact how Joint Implementation projects are actually handled by the local governments.

 How many JI – projects got a final approval in the specific country

 Which projects types got an approval

 Are there CMM related projects, which got a letter of approval (LoA)

 Which types of CMM projects got a LoA

 Are there special types of CMM projects being excluded by local governments

 Did some types of CMM projects got a letter of endorsement (LoE)

 Are there other reasons that the country is (temporary) excluded from UNFCCC procedures like failure to pay fees etc. If, when the problems are expected to be solved

 Are there other regulations in place or in the pipeline that could hinder a JI-approval especially regarding “Additionalty” like guarantied tariffs for power supply, mandatory methane destruction or penalties, taxes to release CMM into the atmosphere?

1.1.3 Energy politics (preferences for sources of primary energy) and energy laws Overview about countries primary energy mix, actual situation and outlook

 Are there general preference for future primary energy sources

 Will the portion of hard coal be stable or is it planned to reduce this energy source

 What is actual amount of renewable energy and the target for the future

 Is the power/ fuel production from CMM handled similar to renewable energy

 Is the access to the public grid regulated

 What are the conditions to get access to the grid

 How power production for own consumption is regulated

As already mentioned above, Methane can be a valuable source for energy generation. But when used for this purpose it will have to compete with other energy sources. If energy is widely available and cheap, the margin and the probability of success decrease. The volume of coal mined determines the volume of CMM produced, CMM can be independent of mining but in many cases it will not, hence the long-term energy politics have a major impact on CMM projects.

1.1.4 Mining and mine safety laws

The local mining and safety laws will have to be observed to evaluate the feasibility of each project.

Capturing and extracting methane can be made difficult or supported depending on legislation, concessions and royalties will have a strong influence on cost and profitability. Licensing is required in all cases and can be costly, time-consuming or relatively easy to obtain. If the local mining law, for instance, does not permit the use of methane in low concentrations for energy and power generation, some options simply disappear.

Who is the owner of the CMM, in most cases it is the mining company holding the licence to dig the coal, but for abundant mines or abundant part of mines it could be different?

Mine safety laws and regulations: Describe the regulation, which are important for any kind of CMM Utilisation What are the safety regulations for CMM-Utilisation for methane concentrations close or in the explosive range? Are there prohibited concentration ranges for utilisation? If so, are there possibilities to avoid these restrictions by installing especial additional safety measurements and equipments?

1.1.4.1 Environmental laws

This subject is closely related with the implementation of the Kyoto Protocol. Which type of project gets support varies widely. Some countries favour wind, others water or solar energy projects. In theory the environmental laws in all countries should also be promoting CMM projects as well as all other environmentally advantageous projects, but these projects continuously compete with each other for feasibility, financing and other resources.

 Which environmental laws and regulations has to be considered regarding any kind of CMM-Utilisation

 For which kind of CMM-Utilisation project an environmental impact assessment is needed

 Which authorities other than mine authorities are involved for a CMM project

 What is the expected time to get all approvals

 Are there any special regulation to protect groundwater, soil and air for CMM activities

 Requirements to transport and distribute fuels ( compressed gas/LNG)

1.1.4.2 Energy Laws

Actual laws and regulation for energy production, especially connection to public grid

- Tariffs for power from CMM

- Tax deduction for fuels produced from CMM

Country aspects

In the following is pointed the financial situation of each country looked at. The structure of this documents is listed below. The whole report with all countries you find here: [|Country report]

3. Implementation status of Kyoto Protocol More information at Legal Aspects of CMM projects

3.1 Energy politics (preferences for sources of primary energy) and energy laws

3.2 Mining and mine safety laws

3.3 Environmental laws

3.4 Energy Laws

Czech Republic

In the Czech Republic

Kazakhstan

Coal mining in Kazakhstan is mainly done by the company AreclorMittal.

For financial aspects three topics are specially interesting.

General information about the country

Legal condtions for utilisation from CMM

More information you find in (PDF Kasakhstan). The information in the document is from the time 2008 or 2009.

Poland

More information about Poland you find on country information Poland

Romania

In Romania exists only

Russia

One of the worlds largest produzer of coal is

Ukraine

Coal industry is one of the important indusrty parts in Ukraine.

United Kingdom

In the UK

Germany

In Gremany coalmining will we finished in 2018.