Emissions news

Emission Permits Rise to Week's High on Expected German Demand
By Mathew Carr

June 28 (Bloomberg) -- European Union emission permits rose to their highest in a week, on speculation demand from proposed German power stations will exceed the permits set aside by the national government, a Deutsche Bank AG analyst said. Rising power prices helped push permits higher.

EU carbon dioxide emission permits for December 2008 gained 93 cents, or 4.3 percent, to close at 22.36 euros ($30.11) a metric ton on the European Climate Exchange in Amsterdam. They earlier traded as high as 22.60 euros a ton, their highest since June 21.

Demand for permits from yet-to-be-built power plants may reach 33 million tons a year in the five years through 2012, said Mark Lewis, a Paris-based emissions analyst at Deutsche Bank. That's 15 million tons a year more than the 18 million tons a year Germany has set aside for new plants, Lewis said today by telephone.

Emission permits sometimes follow German electricity because higher electricity prices make it more profitable for power plants to burn fossil fuels. Germany is the largest electricity market in the EU, home to the biggest greenhouse-gas trading program.

Baseload German power for next year, a European benchmark, rose 20 cents, or 0.4 percent, to 56.30 euros a megawatt hour, according to prices from ICAP Plc.