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Climate Action
News article6 May 2020Directorate-General for Climate Action

Forthcoming publication of the annual surplus indicator (total number of allowances in circulation) for the EU ETS Market Stability Reserve

On 8 May 2020, after 18:00 CEST, the European Commission will publish the total number of allowances in circulation on the European carbon market.

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On 8 May 2020, after 18:00 CEST, the European Commission will publish the total number of allowances in circulation on the European carbon market.

This indicator plays an important role for the Market Stability Reserve of the EU Emissions Trading System (ETS), which started operating in January 2019. It determines how many allowances will be placed in the reserve, as long as the total number of allowances in circulation exceeds the level set in the legislation of 833 million allowances.

Since January 2019, nearly 400 million allowances have been put in the reserve through reduced auctioning. The indicator published on 8 May 2020 will determine how many additional allowances will be placed in the reserve, through reduced auctioning, between September 2020 and August 2021.

900 million allowances that were backloaded in 2014-2016 have been added to the Market Stability Reserve. In line with previous years, the calculation of the total number of allowances in circulation in 2019 is based on an extract of verified emissions data from the EUTL made on 1 April 2020. Moreover, the calculation for 2019 is based on emissions and issuance in 2019; it does not include UK volumes of emission allowances of free allocation or auctioning for 2019, since they were only released in 2020.

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Details

Publication date
6 May 2020
Author
Directorate-General for Climate Action