ETS foe pays $1.4 million premium

ETS foe pays $1.4 million premium

A company ideologically opposed to the Emissions Trading Scheme is thought to have paid $1.4 million more than it needed to to meet its carbon obligations last year, according to Carbon News.

The scheme allows emitters to either surrender a carbon credit or pay the Government $25 for every two tonnes of emissions.

With carbon prices at around $6 a tonne at the May 31 surrender time last year, the vast majority of emitters chose to surrender credits.

But latest figures on the Government’s Emissions Unit Register show 73,575 tonnes of emissions in the 2011 year were covered by the $25 payment.

Carbon News says that means that emitters paid more than $1.8 million for emissions that they could have covered with $440,000 worth of carbon credits.

It is understood that most, if not all, the 73,575 tonnes of emissions came from one company operating in the mining industry.

Sources say that the company is fundamentally opposed to the ETS, and has implemented a firm policy of not taking part in the carbon market

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