The International Emissions Trading Association (IETA) is a non-profit business organisation created in June 1999 to establish a functional international framework for trading in greenhouse gas emission reductions. As of April 2011, IETA comprises more than 155 international companies from OECD and non-OECD countries.
The organisation’s membership includes international companies from across the carbon trading cycle. IETA members seek to develop an emissions trading regime that results in real and verifiable greenhouse gas emission reductions, while balancing economic efficiency with environmental integrity and social equity.
Key aspects of IETA’s approach to an efficient market include:
- transparency of design and operation;
- sufficient scale to operate and deliver emissions reduction;
- no artificial barriers to access or participation;
- low transaction costs and limited bureaucracy;
- delivery without intervention (i.e. no price caps or price floors, no artificial supply barriers such as limits on the use of reduction units from projects);
- adequate offset availability;
- a fair and equitable allowance allocation process that does not withdraw capital from the firms and industries covered by the scheme, nor grants windfall profits;
- recognition of the important link between the holder of allowances and the initiation of actions that create the reductions;
- the need for trading systems to recognise all verifiable key abatement technologies, including carbon capture and storage;
- that the release of market data is well managed.
IETA upholds its principles by acting as a think tank, a convenor of dialogues, an advocate, a market promoter and acting as a body that is able to drive market standards.