UK pushes back ETS allowances auction
DECC has revised its timetable for selling carbon credits under the EU emissions trading scheme (EU ETS), due to uncertainty as to when the new bloc-wide registry for the scheme to be published
In accordance with the revised ETS Directive 2009/29/EC, the EU is to create a single register of all the allowances sold under the scheme.
Currently, each of the member states holds individual electronic registries, but the new single union registry will centralise the administration and help to boost security of the allowances, following the theft of a number of allowance serial numbers in early 2011.
The exact date of the launch of the registry has not been announced, but it will not be before June.
Despite DECC announcing less than a month ago it would hold three auctions of EU ETS allowance before the end of July, it has today (5 April) published a new timetable postponing the sale of four million carbon credits from 7 June to 6 September.
In a statement, the energy department said the move was made due to “uncertainty around the exact timing of the activation of the single union registry and to provide as much prior notice to the market as possible”.
DECC has confirmed, however, that the 10 May auction announced last month will go ahead.