Ontario’s first cap-and-trade auction sells out current allowances
TORONTO — Ontario’s first cap-and-trade auction sold out all current allowances, giving the new market a strong start, but the province’s environment minister warned the real test of the system will be in the emission reductions it brings about.
The March 22 auction brought in $472 million, the government said Monday.
But over the next 15 auctions, to the end of the compliance period in 2020, the market can probably expect “a reasonable amount of volatility and unpredictability,” said Environment Minister Glen Murray.
“The participation rate, whether it’s 100 per cent or 20 per cent or 50 per cent or 60 per cent or 13 per cent, is not the success of the market,” he said. “The success of the market is really based on our ability to reduce (greenhouse gases). We will not expect to get 100 per cent all the time.”