Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations
Make a sustaining gift today to support local journalism!

Investment Firms Still Lining Up To Buy RGGI Allowances

Results have been posted from the latest auction of allowances for emitting a ton of carbon dioxide under the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative or RGGI. After rising in the first half of the year prices and demand have leveled off this quarter. The right to emit a ton of carbon sold for $2.67 this quarter.

That’s down nearly 17 percent from the last auction, but still substantially higher than the floor price where it had been trading for more than two years.

Banks who are buying up carbon allowances are goosing the market, hoping prices will rise and they will be able to resell at a profit.

“That’s the big story of the auction is that almost half the allowances were bought by firms that don’t have any compliance obligation,” says Ashley Lawson, a carbon market analyst with Thomson Reuters, “By far this is the largest number that’s ever gone to those financial firms.”

Lawson notes that the higher percentage could also be reflective of emitters feeling that they have purchased enough allowances for the year and scaling back their purchasing. “Those entities are focusing just on this year,” says Lawson, “as opposed to the speculators who are looking three, four, or five years down the road.”

The RGGI states voted to lower the cap on carbon dioxide this spring, which once it takes place next year will likely have the effect of lifting carbon prices even higher.

Sam Evans-Brown has been working for New Hampshire Public Radio since 2010, when he began as a freelancer. He shifted gears in 2016 and began producing Outside/In, a podcast and radio show about “the natural world and how we use it.” His work has won him several awards, including two regional Edward R. Murrow awards, one national Murrow, and the Overseas Press Club of America's award for best environmental reporting in any medium. He studied Politics and Spanish at Bates College, and before reporting was variously employed as a Spanish teacher, farmer, bicycle mechanic, ski coach, research assistant, a wilderness trip leader and a technical supporter.
Related Content

You make NHPR possible.

NHPR is nonprofit and independent. We rely on readers like you to support the local, national, and international coverage on this website. Your support makes this news available to everyone.

Give today. A monthly donation of $5 makes a real difference.