The tale of the EU’s overweight climate change fighter

The author contends that the EU ETS is hindered by a massive oversupply of emission allowances, which suppresses carbon prices and risks 'green job leakage'. To rectify this, the document calls for the European Commission to implement a mechanism for the permanent cancellation of surplus and unused allowances and to move toward full auctioning of permits after 2020.

• The EU ETS is currently burdened by an oversupply of more than two billion tonnes of CO2, a glut that is predicted to grow to more than twice the size of the emissions the system covers by 2020.
• Beyond the general surplus, unused allowances from closures and partial cessations could accumulate to approximately 750 million tonnes of CO2 by 2020.
• The lack of a meaningful carbon price and the over-allocation of free pollution permits create a risk of 'green job leakage', where clean tech firms move overseas due to a lack of competitive advantage over polluting competitors.
• The document recommends that the EU ETS transition to full auctioning of allowances after 2020 to ensure fair allocation, generate climate policy revenue, and prevent windfall profits for carbon-intensive suppliers.

APA

CMW (2015). The tale of the EU’s overweight climate change fighter. Carbon Market Watch. https://carbonmarketwatch.org/2015/04/02/the-tale-of-the-eus-overweight-climate-change-fighter/

Chicago

CMW. The tale of the EU’s overweight climate change fighter. Carbon Market Watch, 2015. https://carbonmarketwatch.org/2015/04/02/the-tale-of-the-eus-overweight-climate-change-fighter/.

Wikipedia

{{cite press release |last1=CMW |title=The tale of the EU’s overweight climate change fighter |publisher=Carbon Market Watch |date=2 April 2015 |url=https://carbonmarketwatch.org/2015/04/02/the-tale-of-the-eus-overweight-climate-change-fighter/ |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@misc{cmw2015tale, author = {CMW}, title = {{The tale of the EU’s overweight climate change fighter}}, publisher = {Carbon Market Watch}, year = {2015}, month = apr, url = {https://carbonmarketwatch.org/2015/04/02/the-tale-of-the-eus-overweight-climate-change-fighter/}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }