Carbon Price Viewer
Explore historic carbon price trends under the EU Emissions Trading System (EU ETS). This viewer shows the cost of emitting one tonne of carbon dioxide in Europe up to April 2025. While no longer updated, it provides valuable context on how carbon prices have evolved over time.
Questions and answers
How can I use the Carbon Price Viewer?
The Carbon Price Viewer lets you see historical variations in the carbon price since the beginning of the second phase of the ETS in 2008, or over a shorter period by “zooming” into any time interval.
What does the Carbon Price Viewer show?
The Carbon Price Viewer shows the historical price of European allowances (EUA), i.e. the price of emitting 1 tonne of CO2-equivalent for a European industrial installation or airline covered by the Emissions Trading System. It does not mean that this price is always paid by polluters, as many of them receive free allowances.
EUAs are traded between buyers and sellers, either directly “over the counter” or via organised markets. They can be traded either with immediate delivery (spot) or with delivery in the future, usually at slightly different prices. Up until December 2009, the price shown is based on spot-month continuous contract calculation. After that date, it corresponds to auction settlement prices, from the European Energy Exchange AG.
Where does the data come from?
Up until December 2009, the price was sourced from Quandl. Since then, the data has been sourced from ICAP.
Related publications
Read more about the drivers of the carbon price in the EU ETS in our report on supply and demand in the EU ETS.
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