European carbon market reform must succeed in reality

Carbon Market Watch criticizes the European Parliament for delaying the implementation of the Market Stability Reserve (MSR) until 2019 and for allowing 300 million surplus allowances to return to the market for an innovation fund. The organization warns that the EU ETS is currently flooded with over two billion excess permits, which suppresses carbon prices and hinders the transition to renewable energy. It urges EU Member States to establish the reserve by 2017 to prevent the oversupply from potentially reaching 4.5 billion permits by 2020.

• The EU Emissions Trading System (ETS) suffers from a massive oversupply of more than two billion excess pollution permits, caused by the economic recession, excessive carbon offsets, and free permits given to heavy industry, which keeps the carbon price too low to drive low-carbon investments.
• The European Parliament's decision to start the carbon market reform by 2019 is considered too late; Sandbag forecasts suggest the oversupply could reach 4.5 billion permits by 2020, representing more than two years of EU emissions.
• The current reform plan allows approximately 800 million surplus allowances to return to the market before 2030, which is estimated to dilute the EU's 2030 target by 3%.

APA

CMW (2015). European carbon market reform must succeed in reality. Carbon Market Watch. https://carbonmarketwatch.org/2015/03/03/european-carbon-market-reform-must-succeed-in-reality/

Chicago

CMW. European carbon market reform must succeed in reality. Carbon Market Watch, 2015. https://carbonmarketwatch.org/2015/03/03/european-carbon-market-reform-must-succeed-in-reality/.

Wikipedia

{{cite press release |last1=CMW |title=European carbon market reform must succeed in reality |publisher=Carbon Market Watch |date=3 March 2015 |url=https://carbonmarketwatch.org/2015/03/03/european-carbon-market-reform-must-succeed-in-reality/ |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@misc{cmw2015european, author = {CMW}, title = {{European carbon market reform must succeed in reality}}, publisher = {Carbon Market Watch}, year = {2015}, month = mar, url = {https://carbonmarketwatch.org/2015/03/03/european-carbon-market-reform-must-succeed-in-reality/}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }