The Carbon Market

Auction Proceeds Allocated to the Electrification and Climate Change Fund

Since December 3, 2013, the Ministère de l’Environnement, de la Lutte contre les changements climatiques, de la Faune et des Parcs (MELCCFP) has held quarterly greenhouse gas emission units auctions. All proceeds from the sales are paid to the Electrification and Climate Change Fund ⁽¹⁾ (ECCF) (French).

Emission units from partner governments are entirely fungible, which means that emitters and participants can purchase them irrespective of their country of origin.

In joint auctions, the minimum unit price is the greater of the annual minimum prices of partner governments, after conversion into the same currency. The reference conversion rate at any given auction is the Bank of Canada daily average rate on the first business day preceding the event ⁽²⁾. However, Canadian bidders can pay in either Canadian or US dollars.

As a result of this possibility, a portion of the auction proceeds must be converted from one currency to the other. Any variance in the exchange rate between the day before the auction and the day of conversion may have a significant impact on the amount paid to the Electrification and Climate Change Fund. The following table shows the amount paid to the Green Fund for each listed auction.

Proceeds from the auction of greenhouse gas emission units paid to the Electrification and Climate Change Fund, as of March 15, 2023
(in Canadian dollars)

Québec-only auctions	Current Years		Future Years		Proceeds paid to the ECCF
	Units sold	Price	Units sold	Price
December 3, 2013	1,025,000	$10.75	1,708,000	$10.75	$29,379,750.00
March 4, 2014	1,035,000	$11.39	1,285,000	$11.39	$26,424,800.00
May 27, 2014	1,049,111	$11.39	1,302,000	$11.39	$26,779,154.29
August 26, 2014	694,000	$11.39	1,455,000	$11.39	$24,477,110.00
Sub-total	3,803,111		5,750,000		$107,060,814.29

 

Québec-California joint auctions	Current Years		Future Years		Proceeds paid to the ECCF (3)
	Units sold	Price	Units sold	Price
November 25, 2014	1,049,114	$13.68	1,527,000	$13.41	$34,687,822.04
February 18, 2015 (4)	11,171,647	$15.14	1,474,000	$15.01	$191,239,426.43
May 21, 2015	13,118,323	$15.01	1,386,463	$14.78	$217,312,458.20
August 18, 2015	11,171,647	$16.39	1,474,000	$16.10	$207,019,309.08
November 17, 2015	11,171,647	$17,00	1,474,000	$16.89	$214,622,654.04
February 17, 2016	11,149,718	$17,64	1,320,037	$17.64	$219,533,976.21
May 18, 2016	1,085,305	$16.40	128,887	$16.40	$19,999,969.52
August 16, 2016	3,520,244	$16.45	108,440	$16.45	$59,541,579.86
November 15, 2016	8,942,291	$17.29	143,835	$17.29	$156,984,054.36
February 22, 2017	1,555,604	$17.84	98,660	$17.84	$29,481,711.11
May 16, 2017	8,676,131	$18.82	297,950	$18.51	$168,413,711.64
August 15, 2017	8,676,131	$18.74	1,368,500	$18.49	$187,694,463.82
November 14, 2017	10,845,165	$19.10	1,368,500	$18.72	$232,877,186.73
February 21, 2018(5)	9,663,522	$18.44	953,314	$18.34	$196,049,713.71
May 15, 2018(5)	9,663,522	$18.72	673,301	$18.56	$193,515,761.42
August 14, 2018	9,663,522	$19.77	1,381,500	$19.57	$217,946,931.01
November 14, 2018	9,663,522	$20.27	1,381,500	$20.30	$223,928,934.91
February 20, 2019	9,574,976	$20.82	894,008	$20.68	$217,730,082.38
May 14, 2019	9,574,976	$23.48	1,350,500	$23.42	$256,357,481.01
August 20, 2019	9,574,976	$22.82	1,350,500	$22,41	$248,705,259.52
November 19, 2019	9,574,980	$22.46	1,350,500	$22.20	$245,213,275.76
February 19, 2020	9,068,906	$23.69	1,319,750	$23.86	$246,468,654.35
May 20, 2020	3,335,153	$23.17	268,295	$23.17	$81,893,811.48
August 18, 2020	6,444,090	$22.03	1,319,750	$22.10	$171,045,619.91
November 17, 2020	7,255,128	$22.15	1,319,750	$22.70	$190,486,111.81
February 17, 2021	7,230,807	$22.58	1,288,750	$22.84	$192,697,336.10
May 19, 2021	9,861,797	$22.66	1,288,750	$22.95	$253,011,970.65
August 18, 2021	9,038,508	$29.41	1,288,750	$29.90	$304,236,334.56
November 17, 2021	9,038,508	$35.47	1,288,750	$42.68	$375,948,005.00
February 16, 2022	9,093,457	$37.14	1,120,973	$25.10	$365,891,930.48
May 18, 2022	8,405,633	$39.59	1,257,750	$36.10	$378,111,918.54
August 17, 2022	7,126,954	$34.74	1,257,750	$38.60	$296,329,526.40
November 16, 2022	7,134,456	$35.62	1,257,750	$34.55	$297,692,846.41
February 15, 2023	6,754,558	$37.17	1,227,000	$36.04	$294,900,713.61
Sub-total	278,874,918		37,009,163		$7,187,570,542.06
Total	282,678,029		42,759,163		$7,294,631,356.35

(1) Before November 1, 2020, the amounts were paid into the Green Fund.

(2) Before March 1, 2017, the Bank of Canada published a noon exchange rate, in addition to a daily average exchange rate. This noon exchange rate was used for all auctions that took place before that date.

(3) Joint auctions involve currency conversion for part of the proceeds. The rate and transaction fees on the date of conversion can affect the amount deposited to the Electrification and Climate Change Fund. As a result, the product of the number of emission units sold and the settlement price may slightly differ from the actual amount deposited.

(4) The increase in the number of emission units offered for sale in 2015 results from the inclusion of fossil fuel distributors on January 1, 2015.

(5) Joint auction including California, Québec and Ontario.