Alessandro Vitelli

COMMENT: The EU ETS is starting its own battle to survive the winter

The summer holidays are over. Carbon traders had a fun August in which EUA prices went up €22 and then went back down €22, but now the grown-ups are back from the beach and stuff's getting real, writes Alessandro Vitelli. By Alessandro Vitelli The…

COMMENT: Same old August for EU carbon prices… or is it?

By Alessandro Vitelli European carbon prices have followed their now-traditional course in August by rising on the back of the 50% reduction in auction volumes. This has happened every year since 2008 – with one exception – and is pretty much baked…

COMMENT: The EU’s MSR sale proposal – “Ooooh! Look at that cookie jar!”

The European Commission’s plan to bring roughly 200-250 million EUAs out of the Market Stability Reserve (MSR) and auction them to raise €20 billion to fund the bloc’s shift away from Russian energy has jolted the EU ETS, igniting “trust” concerns by…

COMMENT: Can Brussels chase the speculators out of the EU ETS?

EU lawmakers want to clamp down on speculative traders participating in the EU ETS. There’s been a steady drumbeat of complaints over the past few months from MEPs and some member states, claiming that unnamed speculators have driven the price of…

COMMENT: Deceived wisdom in the EU ETS

It’s been a somewhat wild start to 2022. As the energy index below shows, we had a relatively calm start to the year before Russia invaded Ukraine and the fertiliser hit the fan. Europe’s carbon market saw extreme volatility as speculative investors…

COMMENT: When is a market not a market? When it’s the EU ETS that Poland & Co. want

News and intelligence on carbon markets, greenhouse gas pricing, and climate policy

EU carbon prices surge to record levels

Number of investment funds active in EU ETS market up 50pc in 2021, exchange data shows European carbon prices have risen by a third in the last three weeks, from €65/t ($73/t) to a record €87/t, mainly on increased buying by speculative and…

COMMENT: “Nothing surpasses the beauty and elegance of a bad idea”

It hasn’t taken long for governments to notice the EU ETS, spitting out revenue at the rate of half a billion euros a week, and get the idea that here is a mechanism ready-made to be exploited at a time of crisis. But a new Greek proposal marks a…

COMMENT: Is the EU carbon price rally over?

So the latest peak in European carbon prices is over. EUAs climbed to a record of €63.35 on September 8 and have settled back at around €60 over the past week. I suppose the question is: is that it? Are we done for the year, or are prices going to…

UK sets June-Sept price for additional supply at GBP 45.90/t

(Montel) The UK may issue additional allowances to its carbon market if UK Allowance prices remain above GBP 45.90/t during June, July and August, the government announced late on Thursday. The latest “trigger price” will operate alongside the…

Ice Endex suspends EUA, EUAA trading

(Montel) The Ice Endex exchange has suspended the trading of EUA/EUAAs amid technical issues, it said on Monday. Ice sent a message to traders announcing the suspension on its web-based trading platform at around 09:40 CET. “The exchange is aware…

Ice Endex suspend la négociation des EUA et EUAA

(Montel) La bourse Ice Endex a suspendu la négociation de quotas carbone européens EUA et EUAA (aviation) en raison de problèmes techniques, a-t-elle annoncé lundi. La bourse en a prévenu les traders dans un message sur sa plateforme d'échanges en…

CARBON – EUAs to trade near EUR 50/t as 6-month rally pauses

(Montel) EUAs are expected to trade either side of EUR 50 in the coming week, as support from industrial buying provides support as the six-month price rally appears to have paused. Sources pointed to an increasingly gloomy macroeconomic outlook,…

UK ETS launch reignites debate over emissions market linking

Opportunity to bring together UK and EU markets, but China’s new scheme lacks compatibility with other systems The UK's launch last month of its emissions trading system (ETS) has brought the issue of linking markets back to the top of the agenda in…

COMMENT: Growing Pains in the UK ETS

The UK ETS has been up and running for more than a week now, and while it might be stretching things to say that we can already see a few trends, there are nonetheless a few interesting developments worth noting. UKAs listed on ICE for delivery in…

UK may sell additional CO2 allowances in 2021

(Montel) The UK government is considering selling additional carbon allowances which were not allocated to industrial plants this year, according to a source at the country's department of business, energy and industrial strategy (BEIS). UK…

UK government completes issuance of free UKAs

(Montel) The UK government said it has finished issuing free UK Allowances (UKAs) to industrial installations as part of the first year of its carbon emissions trading system (ETS). “UK ETS free allowance entitlement for 2021 was transferred to…

UK holds first carbon sale amid EUA sell-off

(Montel) The UK sold its first tranche of carbon UKAs at auction on Wednesday for GBP 43.99/t amid a wider sell-off in European allowances. The British sale received bids totalling 29.3m, according to data from Ice Futures, representing a cover ratio…

CO2-Rally zieht marktfremdes Kapital an

(Montel) Die Preisrally im CO2-Markt hat eine signifikante Menge an Geld von marktfremden Investoren angezogen, die unter anderem aus den USA stammen und sich Profite sichern wollen. Zu den neuen Marktteilnehmern gehören auch bekannte…

COMMENT: EU carbon’s “fine mess”

Carbon’s been on a bit of a journey in the last week, and to judge from the chatter in the market there really is no end in sight. How high can it go? What can stop it? Who’s going to call the top? Most of the reasons why carbon is rising are clear…