ICE amends UK carbon auction calendar

LONDON (Reuters) - Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) has updated its calendar for the auction of UK emissions permits for this year to take into account surplus emissions permits, the UK ETS Authority

said.

The UK ETS is a scheme to incentivise big polluters to cut emissions by forcing them to buy permits to release carbon dioxide. It replaced the UK’s participation in the European Union's ETS on Jan. 1, 2021.

It applies to energy intensive industries, the power generation sector and aviation.

ICE holds fortnightly auctions of the permits on behalf of the UK government.

From Sept. 21, 3,335,500 permits will be auctioned in the fortnightly auctions ICE holds. This is slightly higher than the 3,221,500 auctioned previously, a government website showed.

Some 803,500 permits were set aside for free allocation for aviation this year but are not required.

Under the rules of the scheme, these should instead be brought to the market via auctions and the additional volume will be spread across the remainder of the year, the UK ETS Authority said.

(Reporting by Nina Chestney; editing by Jason Neely)