Press Release: Emissions trading: Commission presents options to reform the European carbon market

The European Commission is taking two important steps to address the growing supply-demand imbalance of emission allowances in the EU emissions trading system (EU ETS). As an immediate first step to address the rapid build-up of the surplus of emissions allowances, the Commission made a formal proposal to revise the auction time profile and delay ("back-load") the auctioning of 900 million allowances in the third phase of the EU ETS starting next year. The Commission also adopted a report on the state of the European carbon market which sets out a range of possible structural measures that can be taken to tackle the surplus.

• Primary Source

European Commission: Memo/12/861: Q&A Emissions Trading: Commission outlines two-step process to reform the European carbon market http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_MEMO-12-861_en.htm

European Commission: MEMO/13/32: EU Commissioner for Climate Action Connie Hedegaard on recent developments in the European carbon market http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_MEMO-13-32_en.htm

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