This study assesses the impact of European emission allowances (EUA) prices on stock prices of all companies in the StoxxEurope Total Market Index belonging to sectors regulated by the European Union Emission Trading Scheme (EU ETS). The effect of allowance prices on stock prices is found to be...

The first two phases of the EU-ETS were characterized by a profit increase, which was primarily due to free allowances given through grandfathering. To avoid these windfall profits and to decrease leakage, two major modifications have been implemented for the third phase: electric companies no...

This paper develops a simple model to evaluate the value and the activation frequencies of a generation system consisting of coal-fired and a gas-fired power plants using a real options approach, and the notions of clean-spark and clean-dark spreads. Under a cap-and-trade scheme, the use of...

The first half of the paper provides a brief overview of the European Union’s Emission Trading System (EU ETS), and discusses how emission allowances have been allocated during the first two phases of the trading scheme. I then discuss the effects of auctioning off more emission allowances...

The greenhouse gas emissions trading scheme in the European Union primarily uses grandfathering until 2012, which means that polluters get emission rights free of charge based on their historical emissions. Energy consumers accuse energy producers of making windfall profits by incorporating the...

Introducing climate change policies such as carbon pricing can bring substantial costs for fossilfuel- fired electricity generators, with incumbents often granted a transitional allocation of free emission permits. The free allocation of emission permits and the passthrough of carbon prices to...

International offset certificates trade at lower prices than European Union Allowances (EUAs), although they are substitutes within the EU Emissions Trading System (EU ETS) for CO2. Firms therefore had a strong incentive to use the cheaper certificates. However, a considerable number of firms...