The EU Emission Trading System and the Creation of a Global Carbon Market within the Context of the Durban Package

This paper focuses on the future developments of the EU Emissions Trading System with a view of creating a global carbon market. The future developments of the EU ETS have necessarily to be inserted within the context of the international legal framework, on one side, and the EU climate change policy, on the other. Therefore, the paper starts with a very short overview of the international legal framework, with a special emphasis on the results of the Durban Conference and on those aspects that have an impact on the creation of a global carbon market, such as the Kyoto Protocol flexible mechanisms or other new market-based instruments. Then, the paper takes into consideration the EU position and its recent Climate Change and Energy Package, which gives a central role to the strengthening and expansion of the EU ETS through the Emissions Trading Directive revision of 2009. In the EU vision, the strengthening and the expansion of the EU ETS and of other market-based instruments – CDM, JI and new mechanisms – should lead to the establishment of a real and effective global carbon market, which will have a key role in helping to deliver cost-effectively the significant emission cuts that will be needed in the future.