London, 15 July 2010

The International Emissions Trading Association (IETA) welcomes the unanimous adoption of the proposed rules on auctioning of emission allowances in yesterday’s EU Climate Change Committee. The regulation will now enter a three-month scrutiny period in the European Parliament and the European Council and IETA calls on these bodies to smoothly pass this legislation. The adoption of the auctioning regulation is timely and gives greater certainty to market participant on the rules to come in phase 3. The market now expects the Commission and Member States to rapidly advance discussions on the timetable for early auctions including the date for publication of volumes. This would ideally be September 2010.

IETA European Policy Director, Simone Ruiz said: “It is a relief that the framework for running these auctions in a harmonized and safe manner across the EU is now established. We will indeed see a radical change from 2013, when over 50% of emission permits in the EU ETS will be auctioned compared to around 5% today. “

Ends --