Emissions Trading Schemes Around the World
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Parliament of Australia Department of Parliamentary Services BACKGROUND NOTE 6 June 2013 Emissions trading schemes around the world Anita Talberg, Science, Technology, Environment and Resources Section Kai Swoboda, Economics Section Executive summary • Greenhouse gas emissions trading schemes (ETSs) are operational in several countries. The trade in carbon permits or credits within and between ETSs is growing. However, the economic value of this trade has decreased over the last few years largely due to suppressed economic activity levels. • Australia’s ETS is legislated to adopt a market price and to link to the European ETS in 2015. Some analysts expect the price of Australian carbon permits and credits to converge with those in the European scheme, which have been decreasing in value for the last few years due to oversupply. • At the national level legislated ETSs exist in the European Union, Switzerland, New Zealand, Australia, South Korea, and Kazakhstan. Some subnational schemes are legislated in the US, Canada, and Japan. The Kyoto Protocol also provides for emissions trading across nations. • Several new schemes are being proposed. China is the most notable with a network of seven pilot schemes planned to begin operation in 2013 (although most of these provincial schemes are unlikely to meet this deadline). Contents Introduction ............................................................................................................................................. 1 Part 1: International carbon markets....................................................................................................... 1 Recent carbon price trends ................................................................................................................. 5 Australian carbon price expectations ................................................................................................. 7 Part 2: Legislated mandatory emissions trading schemes ....................................................................... 9 Kyoto Protocol .................................................................................................................................... 9 EU ETS ................................................................................................................................................. 9 Australia’s Carbon Price Mechanism ................................................................................................ 11 New Zealand ETS ............................................................................................................................... 12 Swiss ETS ........................................................................................................................................... 13 South Korean ETS .............................................................................................................................. 14 Kazakhstan ETS ................................................................................................................................. 15 Regional schemes ............................................................................................................................. 15 Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI)–United States ......................................................... 15 Western Climate Initiative (WCI)-United States and Canada ...................................................... 17 Californian cap-and-trade scheme—United States ................................................................ 17 Quebec’s cap-and-trade system—Canada ............................................................................. 18 Alberta-Based Greenhouse Gas Reduction Program and Offset Credit System–Canada ........... 18 Japan’s regional schemes ............................................................................................................ 19 Tokyo cap-and-trade scheme ................................................................................................. 19 Saitama cap-and-trade program ............................................................................................ 20 Part 3: Proposed emissions trading schemes ........................................................................................ 20 China’s emissions intensity scheme.................................................................................................. 21 A national Japanese ETS? .................................................................................................................. 22 Japan’s bilateral offset credit mechanism ................................................................................... 23 Appendix 1: Map showing countries with an ETS and their populations .............................................. 24 Appendix 2: Table of ETSs ...................................................................................................................... 25 Acronyms Acronym Meaning AAU Assigned Amount Unit AU Australian Unit BOCM Bilateral Offset Credit Mechanism CARB California Air Resources Board CCA California Carbon Allowance CDM Clean Development Mechanism CEF Clean Energy Future CER Certified Emissions Reduction CO2 Carbon dioxide CO2e Carbon dioxide equivalent EC European Commission EITE Emissions Intensive and Trade Exposed ERU Emission Reduction Units ETS Emissions Trading Scheme EU European Union EUA European Union Allowance JI Joint Implementation MCI Monthly Calculation Index (Kazakhstan) Mt Megatonnes NZ New Zealand NZU New Zealand Unit RGGI Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative US United States WCI Western Climate Initiative Emissions trading schemes around the world Introduction Australia’s ETS, known as the Carbon Pricing Mechanism (CPM), came into force on 1 July 2012 as part of the Clean Energy Future package. As the Minister for Climate Change and Energy Efficiency Greg Combet has stated frequently, Australia is not the only country to have legislated an ETS.1 In 2010 the Parliamentary Library provided a listing of all ETSs in operation around the world in its Greenhouse gas emissions: still trading after all these years publication.2 Since then, there has been some progress globally and a number of changes. On 2 May 2012, (for example) the South Korean National Assembly passed legislation for its own type of ETS. This paper provides an overview of international carbon trading in mandatory schemes and presents the current status on legislated multinational, national and regional ETSs around the globe as at the end of April 2013. New proposals relating to existing schemes and emerging schemes in overseas jurisdictions are made on an ongoing basis, so readers should take account of any new developments when assessing future situations. The paper includes two appendices, a map and a table which summarise and consolidate the information on ETSs for easy reference. Part 1: International carbon markets The key mandatory ETSs currently planned or in operation exist in the European Union (EU), South Korea, California, Quebec and Australia.3 These are detailed in the second part of this paper. Together these five schemes will require companies to surrender emissions permits equivalent to 4 around 3200 megatonnes (Mt) of CO2e in 2015 (Figure 1). Participants in the EU ETS account for 5 around 60 per cent of emissions in these ETS systems. The inclusion of seven pilot Chinese regional 6 ETSs would add another 800 Mt of emissions covered by mandatory ETSs in 2015. 1. G Combet, ‘Dirty tactics on carbon pricing’, The Age, 11 March 2011, accessed 15 March 2013; G Combet (Minister for Climate Change and Energy Efficiency), ‘Australia and EU committed to low carbon future’, media release, 5 September 2011, accessed 15 March 2013; and G Combet, ‘Carbon price is the best way forward’, The Australian, 26 February 2011, accessed 15 March 2013. 2. L Nielson, ‘Greenhouse gas emissions: still trading after all these years’, Background Note, Parliamentary Library, Canberra, 12 November 2010, accessed 19 March 2013. 3. Emissions covered by the New Zealand ETS are excluded from the analysis in Part 1 because of the relatively small volume of emissions covered by the scheme and the operation of rules that provide for a 50 per cent discount on the surrender of permits. The pilot Chinese regional schemes are also excluded as they are still in the draft stage. 4. The term CO2e stands for carbon dioxide equivalent: the amount of carbon dioxide (CO2) and/or non–CO2 greenhouse gases that equal the global warming potential of an equivalent amount of CO2 over a given timeframe, usually 100 years. 5. The size of the cap for each ETS may not yet be finalised. For example, the cap for the Australian ETS in 2015 will be determined by regulation, or, in the absence of regulation, by a default cap that is 38Mt less than actual emissions by liable entities in 2012–13 (Clean Energy Act 2012, sections 14 and 17). The estimates for each scheme presented in Figure 1 may differ from other available estimates depending on when they were made and the assumptions used. 6. H Chai, ‘Will 2013 mark the dawn of Chinese ETS?’, Point Carbon Analysis, 13 March 2013. The 800 Mt estimated to be covered by the pilot Chinese regional ETSs will be affected by how indirect emissions are treated in the program (H Chai, ‘Direct and indirect emissions in Chinese ETS: a tale of double-counting’, Point Carbon Analysis, 2 May 2013). 1 Emissions trading schemes around the world Figure 1: Estimated total liability for participants