The EUA Dec’23 contract expired on Monday and was last seen at €69,08, “down 21% on where it opened as the benchmark last December,” as stated by Montel News. Furthermore, the final auction of 2023 was also scheduled for yesterday with “the first auctions in 2024 are expected to start from 15 January,” according to the Directorate-General for Climate Action.

Despite exceeding €100 in February for the first time in their history, carbon prices have been under pressure since mid-August. The decline could be explained mostly by reduced demand from compliance buyers due to the economic downturn and high renewable generation.

 

New research by Montel’s EnAppSys revealed that “emissions from Europe’s power industry are set to fall 15-18% this year with green energy sources estimated at around 46% of the power mix, up 6 percentage points year on year.”

 

Latest data from the industrial sector also point to a contraction in emissions. “Experts predict that industrial emissions of greenhouse gasses in the EU Emission Trading System have fallen by around 7% in 2023 compared to 2022 levels,” wrote Alessandro Vitelli.

 

Data published by Eurostat last week for October alone confirms that industrial production in the Eurozone dropped by 6,6% compared to last year, more than 4,6% expected by analysts polled by Reuters.