Carbon price[edit]
The carbon price within Phase II increased to over €20/tCO2 in the first half of 2008 (CCC, 2008, p. 149). The average price was €22/tCO2 in the second half of 2008, and €13/tCO2 in the first half of 2009. CCC (2009, p. 67) gave two reasons for this fall in prices:[49]
Reduced output in energy-intensive sectors as a result of the recession. This means that less abatement will be required to meet the cap, lowering the carbon price.
The market perception of future fossil fuel prices may have been revised downwards.
Projections made in 2009 indicate that like Phase I, Phase II would see a surplus in allowances and that 2009 carbon prices were being sustained by the need to 'bank' allowances in order to surrender them in the tougher third phase.[24] In December 2009, carbon prices dropped to a six-month low after the Copenhagen climate summit outcome disappointed traders. Prices for EU allowances for December 2010 delivery dropped 8.7% to 12.40 euros a tonne.[50]
In March 2012, according to the periodical Economist, the EUA permit price under the EU ETS had "tanked" and was too low to provide incentives for firms to reduce emissions. The permit price had been persistently under €10 per tonne compared to nearly €30 per tonne in 2008. The market had been oversupplied with permits.[51] In June 2012, EU allowances for delivery in December 2012 traded at 6.76 euros each on the ICE Futures Europe exchange, a 61 percent decline compared with a year previously.[52]
In July 2012, Thomson Reuters Point Carbon stated that it considered that without intervention to reduce the supply of allowances, the price of allowances would fall to four Euros.[53] The 2012 closing price for an EU allowance with a December 2013 contract ended the year at 6.67 euros a metric tonne.[54] In late January 2013, the EU allowance price fell to a new record low of 2.81 euros after the energy and industry committee of the European parliament opposed a proposal to withhold 900 million future-dated allowances from the market.[55]
Phase III[edit]
For Phase III (2013–20), the European Commission has proposed a number of changes, including (CCC, 2008, p. 149):[45]
the setting of an overall EU cap, with allowances then allocated to EU members;
tighter limits on the use of offsets;
limiting banking of allowances between Phases II and III;
and a move from allowances to auctioning.
Ahead of its accession to the EU, Croatia joined the ETS at the start of Phase III on January 1, 2013.[56][57] This took the number of countries in the EU ETS to 31. From July 2015, businesses under the Australian carbon trading scheme will be able to use EU ETS allowances, and from July 2018 (at the latest) there will be a full two-way link.[58][59] Australian Climate Change minister Greg Combet has said that "from July 1, 2015 Australia's carbon price will effectively be the same as that [in the EU]. The same carbon price will cover 530 million people."[58]
On 4 January 2013, European Union allowances for 2013 traded on London's ICE Futures Europe exchange for between 6.22 euros and 6.40 euros.[60]
Projections to 2020
CCC (2008, p. 151) made projections of the expected cap for the EU ETS out to 2020. For a 20% cut in EU economy-wide emissions relative to 1990 levels, the reduction in total emissions was projected to be around 36 million tonnes per annum. CCC (2009, p. 68) projected a carbon price in 2020 of around 22 Euro/tCO2.[49] Most market commentators project a price around or below 30 Euro/tCO2. These carbon price projections are subject to great uncertainty, e.g., over future fossil fuel prices, and predicting business-as-usual emissions (p. 69).
Phase IV[edit]
On 22 January 2014, the European Commission proposed two structural reform amendments to the ETS directive (2003/87/EC) of the 2008 Climate Package to be agreed on in the Council Conclusions[61] on 20–21 March 2014 by the Heads of EU Member States at the meeting of the European Council:[62]
a) the linear reduction factor, at which the overall emissions cap is reduced, from 1.74% (2013-2020) to 2,2% each year from 2021 to 2030 thus reducing 43% of EU CO2 emissions in the ETS sector as compared to 2005.[63]
b) the creation of a 12% "automatic set-aside" reserve mechanism of verified annual emissions (at least a 100 mln CO2 permit reserve) in the fourth ETS period from 2021 to 2030, thus creating a quasi carbon tax or carbon price floor with a price range set each year by the European Commission's Directorate General for Climate Change.[64]
Connie Hedegaard, the EU Commissioner for Climate Change, hoped "to link up the ETS with compatible systems around the world to form the backbone of a global carbon market" with Australia cited as an example.[10] However, as the COP 19 Climate Conference again ended with no binding new international agreement in 2013, Australia has dismantled its ETS system.[65]
Before the European Council summit on 20 March 2014,[66] the European Commission decided to propose a change in the functioning of the carbon market (CO2 permits). The submitted legislation on the Market Stability Reserve system (MSR) moves the current market-based trade of carbon permits in the ETS to a centrally planned sales platform or MSR ETS.[67]
Several Member States, including Great Britain and Holland, have advocated for a higher CO2 permit price which would be beneficial to their gas & oil industries. Most electricity producing power stations which run on gas have been closed[68] or mothballed after 2011 as the CO2 permit price has slumped below 8 euros - which makes gas-based electricity generation unprofitable.[69] Both E.ON and RWE have recorded record losses due to unprofitable gas-fired power stations.[70]
Johannes Teyssen, the CEO of E.ON, has been lobbying[71] the European Commission together with UK Minister Ed Davey[72] and Royal Dutch Shell,[71] Standard Oil companies (Chevron-Exxon) and GDF Suez to change CO2 legislation which would make gas-fired power stations profitable again.[73] [74] [75] [76]
Costs[edit]
Emissions in the EU have been reduced at costs that are significantly lower than projected,[24] though transaction costs are related to economies of scale and can be significant for smaller installations.[77] Overall, the estimated cost was a fraction of 1% of GDP. It was suggested that if permits were auctioned, and the revenues used effectively, e.g., to reduce distortionary taxes and fund low-carbon technologies, costs could be eliminated, or even create a positive economic impact.
Overall emission reductions[edit]
According to the European Commission, in 2010 greenhouse gas emissions from big emitters covered by the EU ETS had decreased by an average of more than 17,000 tonnes per installation from 2005, a decrease of more than 8% since 2005. .[78]
According to UBS Investment Research, the EU ETS cost $287 billion through to 2011 and had an "almost zero impact" on the volume of overall emissions in the European Union and the money could have resulted in more than a 40% reduction in emissions if it had been used in a targeted way, e.g., to upgrade power plants.[79]
Inclusion of sinks[edit]
Currently, the EU does not allow CO2 credits under ETS to be obtained from sinks (e.g. reducing CO2 by planting trees). However, some governments and industry representatives lobby for their inclusion. The inclusion is currently opposed by NGOs as well as the EU commission itself, arguing that sinks are surrounded by too many scientific uncertainties over their permanence and that they have inferior long-term contribution to climate change compared to reducing emissions from industrial sources.[80]
ETS related crime[edit]
Cybercrime[edit]
On 19 January 2011, the EU emissions spot market for pollution permits was closed after computer hackers stole 28 to 30 million euros ($41.12 million) worth of emissions allowances from the national registries of several European countries within a few days time period. The Czech Registry for Emissions Trading was especially hard hit with 7 million euros worth of allowances stolen by hackers from Austria, the Czech Republic, Greece, Estonia, and Poland. A phishing scam is suspected to have enabled hackers to log into unsuspecting companies' carbon credit accounts and transfer the allowances to themselves, allowing them to then be sold.[81][82]
The European Commission said it would "proceed to determine together with national authorities what minimum security measures need to be put in place before the suspension of a registry can be lifted". Maria Kokkonen, EC spokeswoman for climate issues, said that national registries can be reopened once sufficient security measures have been enacted and member countries submit to the EC a report of their IT security protocol.
The Czech registry said there are still legal and administrative hurdles to be overcome and Jiri Stastny, chairman of OTE AS, the Czech registry operator, said that until there is recourse for victims of such theft, and a system is in place to return allowances to their rightful owners, the Czech registry will remain closed. Registry officials in Germany and Estonia have confirmed they have located 610,000 allowances stolen from the Czech registry, according to Mr. Stastny. Another 500,000 of the stolen Czech allowances are thought to be in accounts in the UK, according to the OTE.[81][82][83]
Cyber fraudsters have also attacked the EU ETS with a "phishing" scam which cost one company €1.5 million.[84] In response to this, the EU has revised the ETS rules to combat crime.[85]
The security breaches raised fears among some traders that they might have unknowingly purchased stolen allowances which they might later have to forfeit. The ETS experienced a previous phishing scam in 2010 which caused 13 European markets to shut down, and criminals cleared 5 million euros in another cross-border fraud in 2008 and 2009.[82]
VAT fraud[edit]
In 2009 Europol informed that 9
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