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

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...

What is the European Project-based Mechanism?

The proposed European Project-based Mechanism (EPM) is an internal offsetting system within the EU, allowing countries with more difficult to achieve Effort Sharing Regulation (ESR) targets to pay for cheaper emissions cuts in other EU Member States. This enables more...

Brexit & the EU ETS: Greater as the sum or in parts?

New analysis by Sandbag shows that the UK Government’s current approach to Brexit makes the possibility of  the UK staying in the EU carbon market unlikely in the long term. If the UK leaves, the size of the persistent EU ETS surplus would be only slightly reduced...

A tale of two surpluses

This report considers the Market Stability Reserve (MSR) cancellation options for Phase 4 of the EU Emissions Trading System (EU ETS). A combination of elements from the European Parliament and Council positions, if maintained in trialogues, would leave the EU ETS in...

The Carbon Leakage Conundrum

How do we prevent industrial carbon leakage? How can we reform the EU ETS to ensure it promotes green industrial growth?