Understanding The EU Emissions Trading Laws

Unlike most traded commodity markets, the market for trading carbon credits or emissions allowances in the EU is not one based on its utility, usage or consumption. A carbon credit is not used in manufacturing processes or consumed like power or grain. Its market is entirely an invention of policy as implemented through legislation and regulation with a view to reducing the carbon emissions in the EU. Any demand for a carbon credit or emission allowance ("allowances"), is also therefore a creation of those legislative and regulatory processes. That process has left the EU Emissions Trading Scheme ("EU ETS"), today in its third phase, moribund with an over-supply of allowances.

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