Government weighed cancelling carbon auctions after ETS price crash

After Climate Change Minister Simon Watts said the ETS — New Zealand's carbon trading market — would be uncoupled from international climate pledges, carbon prices fell from about $50 to $33 and the year's final auction sold nothing. Officials considered cancelling auctions for up to two years to create scarcity and lift prices. By April, officials and market participants opposed this, and auctions stayed largely unchanged.