The error shows "how ill-prepared the European Commission
is to handle communications in a professional way," Emmanuel
Fages, the Paris-based head of carbon research at Orbeo, the
emissions-trading venture of Societe Generale SA and Rhodia SA,
said in an e-mail. The EU couldn't immediately be reached for
comment.
+------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
UN Emissions Traders Rush to Buy Back Contracts After EU Error
2011-01-21 16:33:51.273 GMT
By Catherine Airlie
Jan. 21 (Bloomberg) -- Traders in the United Nations
emissions market rushed to buy back contracts they had sold
minutes earlier after a publication error by the European Union.
The premium of UN emission credits for March 2013 over
those for December 2012 widened to a record 90 euro cents after
the EU mistakenly said member states voted to ban offsets
created in industrial gas projects from January 2013, reducing
their availability in the bloc's carbon cap-and-trade program.
The spread then reversed 1.10 euros on London's ICE Futures
Europe in 12 minutes after the EU retracted the statement.
The error shows "how ill-prepared the European Commission
is to handle communications in a professional way," Emmanuel
Fages, the Paris-based head of carbon research at Orbeo, the
emissions-trading venture of Societe Generale SA and Rhodia SA,
said in an e-mail. The EU couldn't immediately be reached for
comment.
A second statement from the EU said member states voted to
allow polluters in the world's largest emissions system to use
imported carbon offsets for 2012 until the end of April 30,
2013, delaying the start of a ban proposed by the regulator by
four months.
The discount of March 2013 credits stood at 15 cents over
those for December 2012 as of 4 p.m on ICE. That's 6 cents wider
than yesterday.
"There are financial consequences for market participants
to such a mistake," Fages said. "The communication of
sensitive information has to be upgraded to the standards of all
other financial markets."
For Related News and Information:
Top Power Stories: PTOP <GO>
Emissions MArkets, Pricing: EMIS <GO>
--Editors: Rob Verdonck, Stephen Cunningham
To contact the reporter on this story:
Catherine Airlie in London at +44-20-7073-3308 or
cairlie@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story:
Rob Verdonck at +44-20-3216-4149 or
rverdonck@bloomberg.net;
Stephen Voss at +44-20-7073-3520 or
sev@bloomberg.net
