Emissions prices have rather surreptiously risen in the last three weeks from around €18.50 to €23.00 a tonne for the second phase. It appears that the utilities are getting in early and buying up volume knowing that they will be short they must be net buyers. Some have also come up with a clever way of managing this market.

Many consumers are looking at carbon free energy and they are keen to try and get their suppliers to offer this type of product. If they fail in producing sufficient energy effeciency reductions then they promise to rip up bought EUA's in the market. In short this means that the cap will reduce, inflating EUA prices which they pass on to consumers anyway. So this seems like a smart scheme for the supplier.