Cap-and-Invest auctions & market

Businesses that are covered under the Climate Commitment Act must obtain compliance instruments equal to their covered emissions each year. Each instrument (emissions allowance or offset credit) is equal to 1 metric ton of greenhouse gases.

Allowances are issued by Ecology and either given to certain businesses for free, as directed by the law, or sold at quarterly auction. Allowances can be used for compliance, saved to use in a future year, or traded between market participants (just like stocks and bonds).

Program compliance

The 2023 compliance event is Nov. 1, 2024. To be compliant, businesses that are required to participate or those that opt into the program voluntarily can choose their most cost-effective strategy for compliance, including:

Purchasing allowances at auction
Purchasing from other entities
Obtaining allowances through no-cost allocation
Earning or purchasing offset credits (limits apply)
Reducing greenhouse gas emissions
A combination of the above

All other details related to compliance, including deadlines and obligations, are on the Cap-and-Invest Program compliance webpage.

Auction timeline for 2024

Below, you'll find an interactive graphic illustrating the timeline for all four quarterly auctions in 2024, as well as the reports we issue after each auction detailing settlement price, number of allowances sold, and other information. This graphic also includes information about triggered and potential Allowance Price Containment Reserve auctions. We'll update this graphic each year.

To download a static PDF of all 2024 auction dates in chronological order, click the link in the caption below.

The first page of this graphic is a legend to help you understand the different auction events throughout the year. You can click the right-facing arrow below the image to see the rest of the timeline, and hover over any item to see the exact date and event explanation. To download a PDF version of this timeline with all dates displayed in chronological order for the entire year, click here.

Auctions FAQ

In December 2021, Washington joined the Western Climate Initiative Inc. (WCI), the nonprofit that provides the auction platform for the linked programs in California and Québec, as well as the standalone program in Nova Scotia.

We held our first auction Feb. 28, 2023. We'll hold four quarterly auctions each year. You can find more information about how auctions work below.

Information about upcoming auctions and past auction results can be found at the bottom of the page under the "Notices and reports" tabs.

To participate in an auction or to trade allowances, businesses and individuals must set up an account in the Compliance Instrument Tracking System Service (CITSS).

CITSS is an online platform that's used for greenhouse gas cap-and-trade programs like the ones in California, Québec, and now Washington. CITSS provides accounts for market participants to hold and trade compliance instruments.

CITSS is used to:

Register entities participating in Washington’s Cap-and-Invest Program
Track the ownership of compliance instruments
Enable and record compliance instrument transfers
Help entities stay in compliance with program requirements
Help keep the market functional, safe, and secure

You can find resources, trainings, and forms needed to register in CITSS and participate in auctions on our auctions trainings and resources page.

The number of current and future vintage allowances to be sold at each 2023 quarterly auction will be published in an Auction Notice at least 60 days before each auction date. We will also include information about how many no‑cost allowances are being sold by consignment on behalf of electric and natural gas utilities.

Starting in 2024, we will publish the dates and number of allowances to be sold at each quarterly auction for that year by Jan. 15. You can read these notices in the "Notices and reports" section at the bottom of this page.

The number of allowances offered for sale will vary from auction to auction, depending on a few key factors:

The allowance budget for the year.
The number of allowances to be allocated at no cost to EITEs, electric utilities, and natural gas utilities.
Allowances deposited into the Emissions Containment Reserve, Allowance Price Containment Reserve, and Voluntary Renewable Electricity Reserve.

The total allowance budget for 2023 is 63,288,565 allowances. We announce the number of allowances to be offered for sale at 2023 auctions in our Public Auction Notices, which are posted in the "Notices and reports" section at the bottom of this page at least 60 days prior to the auction date.

Yes. There are limits to how many allowances anyone can buy or hold in their accounts. Different limits apply to businesses that need them to cover emissions versus businesses or individuals that are buying them as an investment.

Purchase limits help ensure that auctions are competitive and that no single entity can buy up more than their fair share, and holding limits prevent allowance hoarding.

Ecology may provide a limited exemption to this holding limit to businesses that demonstrate that they need additional allowances to cover their emissions for that year. For more information about this limited exemption, please contact RegistrarCCA@ecy.wa.gov.

Every dollar of state revenue generated by the quarterly auctions will support new investments focused on improving access to clean transportation, clean energy, increasing climate resilience in our ecosystems and communities, and addressing environmental justice and health equity issues across Washington.

The law also requires that a minimum of 35% of this revenue go to projects that benefit the communities in Washington that historically bear more than their fair share of the burdens of climate change, and that 10% go to projects with tribal support.

The Legislature will decide the specific programs and projects to receive auction revenue; Ecology doesn't control how these funds are invested.

You can learn more on our Auction proceeds webpage.

Allowance Price Containment Reserve (APCR) FAQ

The APCR is a separate pool of allowances that are still under the cap but only released into the market when: quarterly auction prices reach a certain threshold; new entities enter the Cap-and-Invest Program and specific conditions are met; and once a year, prior to each compliance deadline. This mechanism is designed to ensure businesses can obtain allowances at pre-determined prices.

APCR Auctions are only open to businesses and entities that are required to obtain allowances to cover their emissions ("covered" or "opt-in entities"). APCR auctions are not open to investors or other entities without a compliance obligation ("general market participants").

APCR allowances can only be used to cover emissions and do not have a vintage. APCR allowances won at auction are deposited directly into entities’ compliance accounts; they can’t be sold or traded among market participants to generate revenue.

At the end of 2023, Ecology issued a notice that the full APCR allowance supply would be available over the course of the first compliance period (2023-2026) and confirmed that until a linkage agreement decision is made, we'll only offer APCR allowances at the first-tier price.

The total supply of APCR allowances that can be made available each year is partially frontloaded, with higher volumes available in the early years of the first compliance period:

2023: 8 million
2024: 7 million
2025: 3 million
2026: ~700,000

The number of APCR allowances offered at each auction is determined by the number of allowances left in each year’s designated APCR budget according to the APCR supply guidance for 2023-2026 (issued November 2023), in addition to any APCR allowances left over from the previous year. The total number of allowances available for each auction will be published in the auction notice, released 60 days before each auction.

For the most updated information on auction notices, please see the notices and reports section below.

As clarified in our 2022 rulemaking, the same holding limits apply to APCR allowances as to the current-year allowances offered at regular quarterly auctions.

This means that the number of APCR allowances purchased by an entity during a 2024 APCR auction will count against the 2024 holding limit, which is 3,338,122 allowances.

Ecology may provide a limited exemption to this holding limit to businesses that demonstrate that they need additional allowances to cover their emissions for that year.

For more information about this limited exemption, please email RegistrarCCA@ecy.wa.gov.

An allowance "vintage" refers to the year it comes from. For example, the allowance budget for 2023 is roughly 63 million allowances, so any of those allowances sold at 2023 auctions would be "vintage 2023."

Generally, businesses must cover their emissions with allowances from that same vintage year or any earlier year, but they can’t use "future vintage" allowances. So 2024 emissions require vintage 2023 or 2024 allowances, but emissions from 2030 can be covered with allowances from any year between 2023 and 2030.

The role of vintages in meeting an entity's compliance deadlines is outlined in more detail in the Program compliance section further down the page.

APCR allowances have no vintage, meaning they can be used to cover emissions from any year and any compliance period.

Notices and reports

Starting in 2023, we'll host four auctions a year, each consisting of a single round of bidding by auction participants. We'll announce the dates of upcoming auctions at least 60 days in advance on our webpage and to subscribers of the auctions and market updates email list.

2024 Auction Notices

2025 Annual Notices

After each quarterly auction, we'll post an Auction Summary Report outlining information about the settlement price and number of allowances sold. A few weeks later, we'll also post a Public Proceeds Report confirming the amount of revenue raised by the auction and a rolling tally of all auction proceeds since the beginning of the program on Jan. 1, 2023.

We also publish reports on different aspects of auctions and market participation, which will be included here for the current year. For previous reports, we maintain an archive of all Cap-and-Invest auction and market reports.

2024 auction reports

Other market reports

You can also sign up to receive auction and trading updates via email to be notified when we issue these reports.

Electric utilities (2023-2026)
Please contact CCA utility@ecy.wa.gov with questions regarding utility allocation.

Natural gas utilities (2023-2026)

EITEs

Contact information

Auctions, CITSS, or auction platform registration, or emails with market-sensitve information: RegistrarCCA@ecy.wa.gov (secure) or 360-407-6296
Emissions reporting and verification: GHGReporting@ecy.wa.gov
Offset projects and credits: CCAOffsets@ecy.wa.gov
Electricity topics: CCAElectricity@ecy.wa.gov
General Climate Commitment Act questions: CCAQuestions@ecy.wa.gov