Emission trading in a high dimensional context: to what extent are carbon markets integrated with the broader system?

Abstract

The EU ETS represents the cornerstone of the EU climate policy framework. While most of the studies focus on the determinants of carbon price, this work will provide further insights into the influence of European Emission Allowance (EUA) prices on carbon dioxide trends and variables of the economic-financial-climate-environmental system considering a large set of time series. Results highlighted how CO₂ appears to be more influenced by commodity prices, climate variables, and past industrial performances. Furthermore, a shock in carbon prices could potentially exert significant turbulence on the carbon dioxide series, fading in intensity as time goes by. Overall, there appears to be a net positive effect on the influence of carbon prices on the system. However, robustness checks identified how the impact of carbon price on CO₂ and other variables of the model is still weak. This work sheds light on the EU ETS's influence on a set of multidimensional variables. Still, overlapping national policies appear to interfere with the EU ETS effectiveness in the EU.