The latest quarterly greenhouse gas allowance auction held by the Western Climate Initiative, which includes California, Quebec and Ontario, saw 100% of the more than 90.5 million current vintage allowances sell at $14.65/tonne. This was up 4 cents from the previous auction clearing price.
Results for the May 15 sale, which were issued May 23 by the California Air Resources Board also show that 100% of the more than 12.4 million vintage 2021 carbon allowances on offer sold at the reserve price of US$14.53/tonne.
Compliance entities purchased 95.6% of the current vintage allowances, which were made up of about 13 million vintage 2016 and 77 million vintage 2018 allowances, and bought 77.7% of the future vintage allowances in the May auction.
Demand for the current vintage was pegged at a 1.36 bid-to-cover ratio.
In the WCI's February auction, 100% of the more than 98.0 million current vintage allowances sold at US$14.61/tonne, and more than 8.5 million, or 69%, of the 12.4 million vintage 2021 carbon allowances were purchased at US$14.53/tonne.
Under the WCI, the California and Quebec cap-and-trade programs were formally joined at the start of 2014, with their first joint auction held in November 2014. Ontario became the third member of the WCI on Jan. 1, 2018, allowing the three governments to hold combined auctions under the program.

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