A move by the Abbott government to halt planned auctions of carbon credits would be unlikely to have an impact, even if Labor and the Greens ended their blockage of climate change legislation in the Senate, the head of the Clean Energy Regulator has said.
Environment Minister Greg Hunt has introduced regulations that would stop three auctions of carbon credits that were due to take place before June 30.
Chloe Munro, the chief executive of the Clean Energy Regulator, told the Senate Environment and Communications Legislation Committee on Monday that the government's move to end auctions of carbon credits would have no impact on the carbon price.
Ms Munro said the cancellation of the first set of auctions for a future flexible price on carbon for the 2015-16 and 2016-17 years would not disrupt the market.
''We don't have any evidence there is a market'' for these carbon units, Ms Munro said.
Senator Mathias Cormann said the auctions were ''quite wasteful'' and the cancellation was ''obviously very sensible''.
The Greens will seek to strike out a move by the Abbott government to stop planned auctions of carbon credits later this year, but Labor is yet to settle its position.
