Auctioning of CO2 Emission Allowances in Phase 3 of the ETS

Globalisation and the Environment, January 21, 2009

Whether the ETS is a deemed a success or not depends in part on how the permits are allocated in phase 2 and 3 of the ETS.

This paper by Eva Benz, Andreas Löschel, and Bodo Sturm does a good job of summarising the main issues. This is a non-technical paper and accessible to all.

Auctioning of CO2 Emission Allowances in Phase 3 of the EU Emissions Trading Scheme [PDF]

Eva Benz, Andreas Löschel, and Bodo Sturm

October 2008

Abstract

The “Climate action and renewable energy package” proposed by the European Commission

in the beginning of 2008 suggests auctioning as basic principle for allocation for the upcoming third trading phase of the EU Emissions Trading Scheme that runs from 2013 to 2020. Overall, it is estimated that at least two third of the total quantity of allowances will be auctioned in 2013, to be increased to 100 % by 2020. In this paper, we emphasize the importance of a properly chosen auction design as the significantly higher auction share, compared to the past and current trading phase, is expected to yield a thin secondary market for CO2 allowances. We elaborate main criteria that a viable auction design is supposed to fulfil and propose a specific auction design for the third trading phase. The auction we recommend is a simultaneous dynamic uniform double auction.

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