ABSTRACT
High-level efforts by international governments to push the world towards a low-carbon future represent a potential challenge for the largest price reporting agencies (PRAs). The increased focus on the environmental consequences of fossil fuels both by consumers and by national governments has already begun to reshape the energy markets that the PRAs assess. In terms of PRAs, there is a relatively limited scope to develop traditional price assessments of the majority of renewable energy sources. Although changing specifications for environmental purposes do force the relevant markets to consider the benchmarks they use, specification changes are usually so well signposted by governments that the incumbent PRA has plenty of time to make the relevant change. The emergence of new environmentally driven markets has also provoked a swift response from PRAs, which have been quick to provide price assessments for new markets, whether these emerge in bioenergy, renewables such as solar, or the various environmental certificate markets.
