EU SOLVES EMISSIONS MARKET GLITCH

EU Commission blocks carbon offsets reuse, BlueNext trade to resume March 22
Nina Chestney (w/Sandor Peto, Gerard Wynn and Anthony Barker), 18 March 2010 (Reuters)

"The European Commission…[will] prevent from August the re-entry into its emissions trading scheme of carbon permits which companies had already used for compliance with their emissions caps.

"The BlueNext carbon exchange…had suspended CER trading after it found that 'used' permits had traded on its exchange…[It will] resume such trade on March 22, having made it 'impossible to trade recycled CERs'."

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"The European Union executive said it would from [March 19] suspend the process where companies counted carbon offsets against their emissions, except during a [brief technical compliance period]…The move would not prevent carbon trading. It was precipitated by trade of permits called certified emissions reductions (CERs) on the Paris-based BlueNext exchange, after companies had already submitted the same allowances against their targets…

"Last week Hungary said it had sold CERs to a Hungarian trading house, after Hungarian companies had already submitted these against their emissions targets, with the understanding that they could not be re-used in the EU scheme…The Budapest trade was legal, exploiting a loophole under the U.N.-backed Kyoto Protocol, but it would be illegal for a company to count the permits against their emissions in Europe, making them invalid there."

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"The EU executive's move [now prevents] such carbon offsets from re-entering the EU emissions trading scheme at all…Budapest said that when it had sold the CERs it made clear these were only valid for sale to non-European buyers…[BlueNext was identified as] the trading firm which had subsequently sold the CERs without a buyer beware warning…

"The week's developments were the latest setback for the European Union's emissions trading scheme (ETS)…Last year fraudsters perpetrated a 5 billion euro pan-EU VAT fraud, adding to technical and over-supply glitches in its five-year history. [Though it has successfully corrected the glitches,] the scheme now faces low prices in the wake of recession."