All carbon trading in Europe has been halted as the European Commission looks into thefts of emissions permits. The Czech carbon registry said 7m euros (£5.9m, $9.4m) of permits had seemingly been stolen by hackers on 19 January. It followed a similar security breach in Austria on 18 January, and prompted five countries to suspend their registries before the entire system was shut down. A Commission spokesman did not rule out the possibility of deliberate sabotage. "For us at this stage, it is theft, not sabotage," said EU spokesperson Maria Kokkonen. "It could be possible that it is concerted action, because the recent incidents, they happened within the last five days." The European Union (EU) has pioneered the market, which allows manufacturers, power companies and other producers of carbon dioxide to buy and sell Europe-wide emissions permits. The permits allow the companies that own them to produce greenhouse gas, and by issuing a fixed number of permits, the EU hopes to cap overall emissions.
