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ARTICLE · 27 SEPTEMBER 2013

EU Carbon Trading System Wins Parliament’s Support

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The European Parliament recently approved a proposal to delay the issue of 900 million emissions allowances.

European UnionEnvironment
Jeffrey Rector
Jeffrey Rector
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Today the European Parliament approved a proposal to delay the issue of 900 million emissions allowances (each representing the right to emit one metric ton of carbon dioxide or greenhouse gas equivalent, or CO2e). The purpose of the measure is to ease supply pressure in the European Union Emissions Trading System (EU-ETS), which has been trading CO2e allowances at a level that is viewed by most policy makers and traders to be too low to have the intended policy effect, which is to encourage investments in CO2e emissions-abating technologies. Final wording of legislation that will implement the proposal is yet to be agreed on. In April, the European Parliament rejected a similar proposal, and that rejection led many to question the long-term viability of EU-ETS. We observed here that a collapse of the EU-ETS would not bode well for California's emerging carbon emissions trading market.

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