State of the EU ETS 2017

Nov 27, 2017

Detailed analysis of the Emissions Trading System in 2017 – Is the EU’s once flagship climate change policy working?

The ESR flexibility repair kit

Nov 24, 2017

With the latest proposals for the design of flexibilities in the Effort Sharing Regulation, there is a risk that member states will first exhaust the ‘external’ flexibilities (with the EU ETS and the LULUCF sector), before using the options of cooperation with other...

The ESR Safety Reserve: Too Safe to Succeed

Jul 18, 2017

This briefing explores the impact of the proposed ‘Safety Reserve’ on the 2030 Effort Sharing Regulation (ESR) and the the ability of Member States to trade Annual Emissions Allowances (AEAs) under Article 5 with use of various emissions scenarios. In...

Aligning Europe’s Policies for Carbon, Efficiency, and Renewables

Jun 6, 2017

Since the earliest days of environmental policy there has been an ongoing and robust debate over the roles of pollution pricing on the one hand, and direct regulatory and governmental programs on the other hand, as tools to reduce pollution levels equitably and...

Why is a carbon-intensity threshold needed for Capacity Payments?

Jun 1, 2017

The European Commission has made it clear that it intends to limit capacity payments in Europe, and its most controversial proposal is to prevent capacity payments to high-carbon power plants; those which run on hard coal and lignite. The Commission has proposed to...