All 4.825 million  NZUs on offer were purchased.

There were 26 participants with 23 of those successfully purchaing NZUs.

The government’s decision later this year on whether it will adopt the Climate Change Commission’s recommended changes to the ETS will have a significant impact on the future price of carbon.

To recap, the commission recommended:

• A reduction in the number of credits being offered for auction.
• A new two-tiered trigger price for the cost containment reserve set at $171 and $214 – a massive jump from the current $70.
• Modification of the ETS to distinguish between carbon removal by trees and emission reductions.

Those recommendations combined would result in a significant decrease in the number of NZUs in circulation.

The cost of NZUs have increased dramatically since the first ETS auction in March of  last year cleared at $36. 

A year later, at the first auction of this year, the price hit $70 and in September's auction that jumped to $76.

If the experts are right, with a carbon price of more than $80 we should start to see the impacts of the ETS and the economy starting to decarbonise over the next few years.