Infographic – EUA prices above €40/t : anatomy of a rally

EUAs are the best performing energy commodity in Europe since the start-up of the COVID19 outbreak. They even reached an absolute record high at €43/t in March 2021, 15 years after the creation of the EU ETS. One clear consequence of this impressive increase over the past few years is the plunge in coal-fired generation in western Europe (and even lignite-fired power generation in Germany) to the benefit of natural gas which emits around twice less CO2 per MWh of electricity. Recently, the number of speculative players in the EU ETS also increased significantly after the EU decided to increase its target of CO2 emission reduction for 2030 to 55% below the 1990 level, which may have played into the recent EUA rally and the strong volatility observed over the past few months