EU Carbon trading crashes: German bourse closes and Irish end carbon rort

More signs Australia is leaping onto a burning ship as it starts carbon taxing, just as the largest carbon markets are winding up:

(Reuters) – Bavaria’s stock exchange will abandon its carbon emissions certificate trading operations in the EU-traded CO2 market on June 30 after volumes in Europe “plunged to practically zero” in recent months, it said on Tuesday.

The EU’s emissions trading scheme (EU ETS) limits the carbon dioxide emissions of the 27-nation bloc’s factories and power plants and covers nearly half of EU emissions.

EU prices are down 60% over the last 12 months

“Emissions trading will never find its feet again without radical political action,” said Christine Bortenlaenger, the head of the exchange…



[Source: Reuters]

The Borse management claim they were closing because of the fraud and hacking as well as the market downturn:

Bayerische Borse listed a number of other contributory factors in its decision to quit the carbon market, including current macroeconomic and policy uncertainty and the instances of VAT fraud and hacking attacks on national emissions registries between 2009 and 2011 that tarnished the image of emissions markets.

A Bayerische Borse spokesman Tuesday told Platts that it held less than a 1% share of the European carbon market. [Source: Platts]

The Industry Group IETA hit back at the German Bourse, and tried to salvage something:

The International Emissions Trading Association Wednesday denied that Europe’s carbon trading system is broken, dismissing suggestions by a German exchange operator Tuesday that industry does not support the scheme.

But the fact that they are even talking about whether it is “broken” or not says all you need to know.

Meanwhile — one of the suspended trading schemes (ICE Futures) will remain suspended. 16 months and counting…

Could the Irish bureaucrats have made this more complex? Was that a levy on a tax?

The Irish are closing off a lucrative carbon rort. Irish Energy companies were told they needed to pay for carbon emissions, but were given free carbon credits during the start up phase (they are supposed to start buying them for real soon). The companies were passing on the theoretical cost of the carbon credits to customers, and thus netting a nice profit with customers paying for a credit that the companies got for free. To stop these naughty companies from making a windfall, the Irish government had the bright idea to …remove the EU trading scheme? No. They decided to add a levy onto these companies to make the trading scheme even more complex. The levy raised €75 million for the exchequer last year. But now, the carbon revenue levy has been dumped though the carbon tax on fuels remains.

VALERIE FLYNN, Irish Times.

THE GOVERNMENT has repealed the multimillion euro carbon levy on fossil fuel-based energy generation, which had allowed energy companies to increase wholesale electricity prices.

The levy had raised an estimated €75 million for the exchequer in 2011 and a further €45 million between its implementation in July 2010 and the end of that year.

It was repealed with immediate effect on Friday.

Who paid the €75 million? According to Viridian Power “the levy “added costs in the electricity market”. Yes, the consumer paid. The Greens predictably were unhappy about the levy being stopped:

Green Party leader Eamon Ryan said he was disappointed at the Supreme Court ruling, because the levy had been in line with the “polluter pays principle”.

And we all know who the evil polluters really are don’t we? Not the conglomerates, but the people who try to stay warm.

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