EU carbon price gives up December gains in January

摘要

The price of European carbon dioxide allowances rallied sharply in late December after an EU parliamentary committee voted in favor of a proposal to withhold future supply. However, the market gave up the gains in January after participants decided there was a high probability of the proposal being significantly watered down before passing into law later this year. EU Allowances for December 2012 delivery under the EU Emissions Trading System shot up from €7.11/mt ($9.26/mt) at the close December 16 to €8.96/mt December 20, a 26% gain. The price jump came as the EU parliament's environment committee considered then adopted December 20 amendments on the draft EU Energy Efficiency Directive. The directive includes a proposal to set aside allowances to take account of CO_2 emissions reductions that are expected to result from the legislation, which imposes EU energy efficiency targets for the period to 2020. The Greens/European Free Alliance party in the European Parliament said a "huge majority" in the environment committee called upon the system's regulator, the European Commission, to withhold a "significant amount of CO_2 allowances before the start of the third trading phase of the ETS and a majority even voted in favor of canceling 1.4 billion allowances."