"European Union regulators pledged to guarantee “fair and equal” access for market participants to a planned proposal on delaying auctions of some carbon allowances to curb oversupply.
The European Commission is planning to propose in the middle of next month a review of the carbon-permit auctioning regulation to postpone some sales of allowances in the early phase of the next trading period of its carbon program that runs from 2013 to 2020, Jos Delbeke, director general for climate at the EU regulatory arm, said earlier this month.
The EU will “in good time” inform the market and the general public of the submission of any proposal to revise the auctioning regulation to the Climate Change Committee, composed of representatives of national government, the commission said on its website....
A delay in the auctioning rate would be a short-term fix to the EU emissions trading system, also known as the ETS, and would amount to a temporary withholding of allowances, without changing the 2013-2020 pollution cap, the commission said.
The emission caps that the EU ETS imposes on more than 12,000 facilities owned by manufacturers and utilities were set before the debt crisis and economic slump. The program will be oversupplied by permits covering about 1.1 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide by 2012, according to Bloomberg New Energy Finance. This surplus may be transferred into the eight-year Phase 3 that starts next year....
“The ongoing review assesses whether the time profile decided in 2010 is still appropriate in the light of changed circumstances, in particular the severe macro-economic crisis, or whether some of the allowances planned for auctioning in the early years of Phase 3 should be back-loaded toward the final years of Phase 3,” the commission said....
The revision of the regulation will be done in the so- called comitology procedure, in which a measure proposed by the commission needs qualified-majority support from representatives of national governments in the Climate Change Committee to pass. Then it becomes subject to a three-month
- scrutiny by the European Parliament and ministers,
- a process that typically takes about five months."...
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Ed. note: It helps if you know Prince Charles:
Prince Charles is 'corporate patron' of Europe's biggest oil and gas company Royal Dutch Shell among others and he uses that position to to influence EU policy on carbon trading.
5/7/12, "Shell sets out ‘progressive’ European climate pitch," EurActiv
"In an exclusive interview with EurActiv, a top executive with Royal Dutch Shell, Europe’s largest oil and gas company, has set out a verdant stall for EU carbon market intervention, binding emissions reductions targets in 2030, and robust environmental criteria for biofuels....(Shell adviser) Sweeney had just held talks with the European Commission President José Manuel Barroso arranged by the Prince of Wales’ EU Corporate Leaders Group, in which he called for more than one billion carbon allowances to be set aside from the EU’s Emissions Trading System (ETS) to raise carbon prices."...
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"Organized crime may be responsible for theft of European Union emission allowances this month, and national authorities are working with Europol...a top EU climate official said." Sweden admits it has Austria's stolen 'carbon credits' but says it might just be 'a coincidence.'
2/1/2011, "Austria Asks Sweden to Return Carbon Permits Worth $3.9 Million," Bloomberg, by Johan Carlstrom and Mathew Carr
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2/1/11, ""Broken" EU spot CO2 market will struggle to revive," Forexpros, Reuters
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11/23/11, "Europe's $287 billion carbon 'waste': UBS report," The Australian, by Sid Maher
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1/2/2011, "Criminal carbon trading schemes escalate," Canada Free Press, Jack Dini
via Junk Science
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