Businesses prepared to make their voices heard on the impact of the European Union's greenhouse gas emissions trading scheme yesterday, as the government launched a consultation into the scheme's second stage.

The initial consultation will last until mid-September, but the final allocations of carbon dioxide emission permits under the scheme, which began on January 1, will not be agreed with the European Commission until late next year. The next stage of the trading scheme, under which businesses in certain sectors are issued with permits to produce carbon dioxide, begins in 2008 and will run to 2012.