A public consultation on rules to govern the future auctioning of emission allowances under the EU Emissions Trading System (EU ETS) has been launched by consultants working for the European Commission. The consultation forms part of the Commission's preparation of a Regulation on auctioning of allowances with respect to the third and later trading periods. In accordance with the revision of the Emissions Trading Directive agreed as part of the EU climate and energy package in December last year, the Commission has to adopt a Regulation by 30 June 2010 to ensure that auctioning is conducted in an open, transparent, harmonised and non-discriminatory manner.
From 2013 at least half of the allowances under the EU ETS will be auctioned instead of being allocated to businesses free of charge. A smooth introduction of auctioning is therefore of crucial importance for the continued efficient functioning of the EU ETS and for protecting confidence in the market for emission allowances.
The consultation covers all aspects of auctioning that may be relevant for the future Regulation. It seeks views notably on the timing, size and frequency of auctions, auction design and regulatory aspects relating to issues such as pre-registration of participants, collateral, payment and delivery, information disclosure and monitoring. It also addresses the question of the number of auction processes that could be used and the appropriate degree of coordination between Member States.
The consultation runs for two months, i.e. until 3 August 2009. Interested stakeholders are invited to participate by filling in the online questionnaire at: https://quickplace.icfconsulting.com/eu-ets-auctions-consultation
Stakeholders are also invited to attend a discussion on the consultation document that will be held during the Commission's Green Week conference on 24 June in Brussels (see http://ec.europa.eu/environment/greenweek for programme).
Background
Under the revised Emissions Trading Directive, auctioning of allowances will progressively replace free distribution as the default method of allocating allowances to businesses from 2013. This makes necessary the introduction of a set of harmonised auctioning rules through the planned Regulation.
It is expected that already in 2013 more than half of the allowances will be auctioned, since from that year onwards there will be no more free allocation to electricity generators apart from a few potential and limited exceptions. This represents a step change from the current level of auctioning, which averages about 4% of the total quantity of allowances.
More information about the EU ETS and auctioning EU allowances is available at:
http://ec.europa.eu/environment/climat/emission/index_en.htm .
http://ec.europa.eu/environment/climat/emission/auctioning_en.htm .
https://quickplace.icfconsulting.com/eu-ets-auctions-consultation
Bron : Europese Commissie