Simon Courts: ACT’s Climate Change Spokesperson on the latest carbon auction, ETS

The latest carbon auction was a bust. 

It attracted zero bids, becoming the eighth auction to be declined. 

The secondary market currently sits around $58 a tonne, while the auction price sits at $68. 

ACT’s Climate Change Spokesperson, Simon Court told Mike Hosking it shows that industrial emitters, such as coal users, already have enough units in the carbon bank to pay for this year's emissions. 

With the success of the secondary market, Court says it’s evidence the Emissions Trading Scheme and the carbon markets are working quite well. 

LISTEN ABOVE 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Not sure how many times we have to tell the
government either this one or the last, but the carbon
auctions aren't working. Latest was held yesterday. There was zero bids.
In fact, no one even registered. Secondary market currently is
it's around fifty eight dollars. Well, the auction price sits
at sixty eight, So would you rather pay fifty eight
dollars or sixty eight dollars? Anyway? This is their eighth

(00:20):
auction to be declined now. Simon Caught is the ACT
Party spokesperson non climate change and he's with us Simon morning,
Good morning, mate. We wanted Simon Watts on the program,
not that we don't love you, but Watts didn't come
back to us, do you, Reckon? That's because he's really
embarrassed at the moment.

Speaker 2 (00:35):
I think Simon Wats has got a lot on us plate.
Each year's auction has only been one thing.

Speaker 1 (00:41):
Right, are you in coalition with them or something?

Speaker 2 (00:45):
Well, the climate spokestres for ACT and of course actors
and coalition with national and government. But just coming back
to the emissions trading scheme, mate, I mean, I think
what we're seeing is that industrial emitters like coal users,
for example, have already got enough units in their carbon

(01:06):
bank to pay for this year's emissions, and the secondary market,
as you pointed out, is working quite well. So if anything,
what that would say is that the ets, the carbon
market's actually working quite well. Exactly whether or not the
government wants to option these kind of credits and do.

Speaker 1 (01:22):
The government set aside money in their books in some way,
shape or form from the collection of funds from the
auction that they hold or not, Because there's a couple
of billion dollars a year up for grabs if people
went and bought them.

Speaker 2 (01:34):
Yeah, I think last year it was about five to
six hundred million, and while it's not shown on this
year's budget, there would be an anticipation of some revenues
coming this.

Speaker 1 (01:43):
Way, which they are.

Speaker 2 (01:45):
Yeah. So I mean that obviously puts pressure on the
government to do the things that it said it would do,
which is to find ways to cut spending, because if
we don't have the money coming in, then we've got
to find other ways to deliver services within the.

Speaker 1 (02:01):
Budget that we're making far too much. Sensire Simon, do
you and I know you're in coalition with them, but
does anybody sit around a cabinet table or a committee
table and go you realize none of these auctions work
and the secondary market actually works fine, and we might
like to have a look at that and stop banking
money that we're never going to get or words to
that effect.

Speaker 2 (02:17):
Well, I don't know about the cabinet table, but certainly
around the water cooler. And when you think about the
impact of what the emissions trading scheme actually does at
the current price at fifty seven to sixty dollars a ton,
what it means is that for every ton of carbon
that someone like Genesis emits when they're burning coal huntly
this winter, they're going to pay about sixty bucks if

(02:38):
they burn a million tons at sixty million dollars, that
goes on Kiwi power bills. And that's why one of
the things this goverment is focusing on is making more
gas available. Because gas only has half the carbon weight
and well therefore only attract half the price. We've just
got to find more gas so that we can move
away from these high carbon fuels.

Speaker 1 (02:58):
Well said Simon, appreciated time. Simon, who's the X spokesperson,
that raised a number of triggering points for me, one
of which was the gas band for more from the
Mic Asking Breakfast. Listen live to News Talks at B
from six am weekdays, or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio