Draft amendment to ETS Auctioning Regulation available for stakeholder feedback: renewed opt-out platform for Germany and arrangements for auctioning of 50 million allowa

A draft amendment to the ETS Auctioning Regulation listing Germany’s next opt-out auction platform has been published today on the Better Regulation Portal starting a four-week stakeholder feedback period. The draft amendment also establishes arrangements for monetising a first batch of 50 million allowances, to enable a timely start of the Innovation Fund in 2020.

As indicated in a regulatory update last month, Germany will be able to resume auctions on its next opt-out platform, the European Energy Exchange AG (EEX), after it is re-listed in the ETS Auctioning Regulation. This is provided for in the draft amendment published today on the Commission’s Better Regulation Portal. The last German auction with EEX as the opt-out platform under the current listing will take place on 9 November 2018, with the Commission expecting the auctions to resume in the course of Q1 2019.

To facilitate a timely start of the Innovation Fund before 2021, as established by the revised ETS Directive, the draft amendment will also enable the monetisation of a first batch of 50 million allowances on the Common Auction Platform in 2020. The arrangements for the monetisation of the 400 million allowances that will become available in 2021-2030 will be decided at a later stage, in a subsequent amendment of the ETS Auctioning Regulation.

The Innovation Fund will support low-carbon innovation in energy intensive industry, carbon capture and utilisation (CCU) technologies, innovative renewable energy and energy storage technologies and demonstration projects on the environmentally safe carbon capture and geological storage (CCS).

The Commission will adopt the amended Regulation after the four-week stakeholder feedback period and then submit it to the European Parliament and Council. Following standard procedures, the Regulation will then be published and will enter into force within two months, provided no objections are raised.

Further updated information will be communicated on this website.