Returning from the Easter break, the European Commission released the draft proposal regarding the auctioning procedures for the third trading period of the EU ETS on Tuesday. The regulation introduces a single auctioning platform from 2013, but differently from the previous stands taken by the EC, allows member states to opt out of it and auction their allowances at national level until 2016. The Commission had previously built its position regarding the need to establish a centralised platform for auctioning allowances on an impact report that clearly stated the cost reductions implied by this choice, alongside the increased simplicity of the scheme and the possibility to link it more easily to other cap-and-trade systems elsewhere in the world. Nevertheless, a minority of member states had put a lot of pressure on the EC to avoid the centralised solution and despite the majority of member states were in favour, the voice of the largest emitters against it seemed to have had its way –at least until 2016.

Climate Policy News

• This news is extracted from the Climate Policy News : a CMCC weekly column that summarises the latest news on international climate change agreements, the updates on the carbon market and the energy and technology updates in the realm of climate change. Go to the web page and see all previous issues since March 2007.
• This week: Auctioning procedures for third trading phase released; France seeks US support for carbon tariff; Outcome of the Bonn talks; Asean meeting; The carbon market this week – Download the April 6 – 11, 2010 Newsletter [Pdf 43 Kb].