Green Investment Schemes: The AAU market between 2008 and 2012

The document examines the AAU market from 2008 to 2012, focusing on how Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries used Green Investment Schemes (GIS) to transform 'hot air'—surplus emission rights resulting from economic downturns—into funding for climate mitigation. It analyzes the strategies of seller countries like Estonia and the Czech Republic, which were successful due to transparent monitoring, and buyer countries like Japan and Spain, which used these deals for technology exports. The report highlights a significant price drop in AAUs by 2012 and discusses the potential for GIS to inform future fund-based mechanisms like NAMAs in developing countries.

• Between 2008 and 2012, approximately 445 to 460 million GIS-backed AAUs were traded, with a total value of around 1.6 billion Euro and an average price of 3.5 Euro.
• AAU prices experienced a drastic decline over the period, falling from an assumed 14 Euro per tonne in 2008 to approximately 1-2 Euro or lower by December 2012.
• Estonia and the Czech Republic were the most successful sellers because they established credible GIS frameworks with transparent rules for financial flows and emission reduction monitoring and verification.
• Several countries faced market access issues due to reputational damage or UN suspensions: Hungary suffered from uncertainty over revenue spending, Slovakia from a controversial deal, and Ukraine, Romania, and Lithuania were temporarily suspended by the UN for reporting rule violations.
• Energy efficiency and renewables in the building sector were the primary priority areas for most GIS, as these sectors were difficult to address via Joint Implementation (JI) due to high transaction costs and a large number of small entities.
• Technology swaps, where buyers provide low-carbon technology (such as electric cars) in exchange for AAUs, became a major option to avoid the complexity of monitoring traditional GIS schemes and to facilitate market entry for buyer-country companies.
• The importance of the 'greening ratio' (emissions saved per AAU sold) declined significantly by 2012, leading to a continuum between high-reduction deals and those with marginal reductions that closely resemble 'hot air'.
• GIS experiences, particularly regarding simplified Monitoring, Reporting, and Verification (MRV) and alternative additionality criteria, could inform the development of fund-based mechanisms like Nationally Appropriate Mitigation Actions (NAMAs) in developing countries.

APA

Tuerk, A., Fazekas, D., Schreiber, H., Frieden, D., & Wolf, C. (2013). Green Investment Schemes: The AAU market between 2008 and 2012. Climate Strategies. https://climatestrategies.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/cs-gis-discussion-paper-formatted-final-rev2a.pdf

Chicago

Tuerk, Andreas, Dora Fazekas, Helmut Schreiber, Dorian Frieden, and Clemens Wolf. Green Investment Schemes: The AAU market between 2008 and 2012. Climate Strategies, 2013. https://climatestrategies.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/cs-gis-discussion-paper-formatted-final-rev2a.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Tuerk |first1=Andreas |last2=Fazekas |first2=Dora |last3=Schreiber |first3=Helmut |last4=Frieden |first4=Dorian |last5=Wolf |first5=Clemens |title=Green Investment Schemes: The AAU market between 2008 and 2012 |publisher=Climate Strategies |date=September 2013 |url=https://climatestrategies.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/cs-gis-discussion-paper-formatted-final-rev2a.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{tuerk2013green, author = {Tuerk, Andreas and Fazekas, Dora and Schreiber, Helmut and Frieden, Dorian and Wolf, Clemens}, title = {{Green Investment Schemes: The AAU market between 2008 and 2012}}, institution = {Climate Strategies}, year = {2013}, month = sep, url = {https://climatestrategies.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/cs-gis-discussion-paper-formatted-final-rev2a.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }