2021 State of the EU ETS Report

2021 State of the EU ETS Report

AUTHOR(S): ANDREI MARCU,DOMIEN VANGENECHTEN, EMILIE ALBEROLA, JAHN OLSEN, JEAN-YVES CANEILL,STEFAN P. SCHLEICHER AND STEFANO CABRAS


The EU Emissions Trading System (EU ETS) is important through its role as the “cornerstone” of EU climate change policy as well as a “role model” and “pioneer” for carbon markets. It is important that, in addition to the regulatory requirements, it be subjected to a thorough and independent review, to discover if it delivers on explicit, and what have become “expected” objectives, as well as discover any issues that need to be better understood.

The Report is intended as a “snapshot”, providing policymakers and stakeholders with an overview of how the EU ETS is doing by April of each year, based on previous year data.

The report focuses on 5 key areas:

  • Recent policy developments
  • Environmental delivery
  • Economic delivery
  • Market functioning
  • The EU ETS in the European Green Deal

The yearly State of the EU ETS Report aims to be an independent contribution to the policy debate, which is needed to ensure that the EU ETS is “fit for purpose.” This report discusses the current state of play in the EU ETS, while also identifying a number of issues that will need to be monitored in the coming years. This is the sixth, yearly edition of the Report.

This report is jointly produced by ERCST, BloombergNEFthe Wegener Center and Ecoact 

This report is made possible through support from the German Ministry for Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety, and the French Ministry for the Ecological Transition

The report is also available in different languages:


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