UN Carbon Declines to Record as Regulator Defends Coal Credits

United Nations emission credits dropped to a record as the regulator defended allowing supplies of offsets from more-efficient coal plants in emerging nations.

Certified Emission Reduction credits for December fell 8.9 percent to close at 1.53 euros ($2.01) a metric ton on the ICE Futures Europe exchange in London, an all-time low.

The Clean Development Mechanism Executive Board on Sept. 13 approved a revised set of rules governing how many emission credits more-efficient new natural gas- and coal-powered plants are eligible to receive in emerging and developing nations. The conclusion on the so-called methodology will boost supply and cause prices to fall, Eva Filzmoser, director of CDM Watch, an environmental lobby group in Brussels, said at the time.

“The revision that the board just approved in Bangkok makes the methodology much more stringent and addresses the concerns” cited by the board’s technical panel, David Abbass, a spokesman for the Bonn-based CDM board, said today by e-mail.

The rules were originally put in place in September 2007 to encourage emerging nations to invest in efficient coal and natural gas plants, Abbass said today by phone.

“It makes sense that fossil fuels are used as efficiently as possible,” he said.

To contact the reporter on this story: Mathew Carr in London at m.carr@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Lars Paulsson at lpaulsson@bloomberg.net