Introduction

Unlike most traded commodity markets, the market for trading carbon credits or emissions allowances in the EU is not one based on its utility, usage or consumption. A carbon credit is not used in manufacturing processes or consumed like power or grain. Its market is entirely an invention of policy as implemented through legislation and regulation with a view to reducing the carbon emissions in the EU. Any demand for a carbon credit or emission allowance (“allowances”), is also therefore a creation of those legislative and regulatory processes. That process has left the EU Emissions Trading Scheme (“EU ETS”), today in its third phase, moribund with an over-supply of allowances.

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Client Alert 2013-115