Jan. 3 (Bloomberg) — The value of global carbon market
transactions plunged 36 percent last year as European Union
permit prices fell and United Nations emission credits dropped
to records, according to Bloomberg New Energy Finance.
The market’s value declined to 61 billion euros ($80
billion) from 95 billion euros in 2011, New Energy Finance said
today in an e-mailed statement. The value of UN offset trading
decreased 64 percent to 6 billion euros. Total trading volume
jumped 26 percent to 10.7 billion metric tons, equivalent to a
third of the world’s total carbon-dioxide emissions.
The market’s worth will be 80 billion euros this year,
assuming the EU has some success in fixing a glut of permit
supply in the bloc and boosting prices, according to New Energy
Finance. While the European Commission proposal to withhold
supply may not be implemented this year, agreeing the plan will
probably be enough to prompt a recovery in prices, according to
Guy Turner, director of commodities at New Energy Finance.
“That will provide confidence in the market that’s been
lacking,” he said today by telephone from London.
The commission in Brussels, the EU market’s regulator,
proposed in November to temporarily delay the sale of 900
million tons of carbon permits through 2015 in a process known
as backloading. The supply would return later in the decade
under the plan.
The backloading plan probably won’t be agreed by EU nations
because it will be seen as a regulatory intervention that
reduces investor confidence in the market, Daniel Rossetto,
managing director of Climate Mundial Ltd., a London-based
consulting company that works in carbon markets, said today by
e-mail. That will delay a price rebound, he said.
The value of transactions in the bloc’s market dropped 24
percent last year to 54 billion euros, according to New Energy
Finance. Average global prices will jump about 15 percent to
6.60 euros a ton this year, the researcher said.
A year ago, New Energy Finance predicted the value of the
global carbon market would advance 9.8 percent in 2012.
To contact the reporter on this story:
Mathew Carr in London at
m.carr@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Lars Paulsson at
lpaulsson@bloomberg.net
