“ETS, RIP – The failure to reform Europe’s carbon market will reverberate round the world” – The Economist, 2013

The European Union’s cap-and-trade scheme aiming to reduce greenhouse gas emissions has been proclaimed dead not only by The Economist. Is it really that bad? We take the United Nation’s point of view that human made greenhouse gases accelerate Global Warming. The success in the first international emission trading scheme, and until today also the world’s largest, is therefore a major milestone in fighting greenhouse gas emission. If it failed, this would be a major setback for emission reduction. So has it really failed as The Economist states?Undoubtedly, there seems to be an issue. Emission prices fell from over 30 Euro per ton of CO2 equivalent to under 5 Euro. Has oversupply destroyed the emission market and the emission trading scheme?