At its session today, the Government of the Republic approved the sale of Estonia’s unused emission permits or AAUs (Assigned Amount Units) to the Kingdom of Spain.
The sale of the AAUs is taking place as part of the green investment scheme, which requires the revenue raised to be reinvested in environmentally friendly projects designed to reduce CO2 and greenhouse gas emissions. Based on the agreement with Spain, the revenue raised from the transaction will be used to develop environmentally friendly public transport.
45 million euros of AAU sales revenue will be invested in procuring new trams that use the most up to date technology for achieving energy efficiency, such as regenerative brake systems, on board energy saving systems, better insulation materials, etc. Also, new rolling stock will use the power more efficiently thanks to a higher transport capacity. The new trams (ca 15) purchased as a result of a public procurement will replace the old trams on the Tallinn City tram line nr. 4., which will be upgraded to accommodate the new trams with financing from the Cohesion Fund.
As a result of the planned project, Tallinn public transport will see signinficant improvement. The improvement of the quality of public transport will in turn help increase its use and reduce the number of cars in Tallinn city so as to avoid the pollution concentration in the city center.
The new trams are expected to arrive in Estonia in 2014