Trading activities and strategies in the European carbon market. Final report

The European Emissions Trading System (EU ETS) constitutes a central European climate policy instrument. Since its start of operation in 2005, the carbon market has grown considerably in terms of trading volume and also with regard to the various players being active. This report is part of the research project "Trading activities and strategies in the European carbon market" and aims to give an insight on the specific trading behaviour of market participants from the energy and financial sector based on publicly available data from the European Union Transaction Log (EUTL). It summarizes the findings and results of the two working packages of this research project. Whereas the first work package focused on the methodological foundations and economic research possibilities within the EUTL itself, the second work package undertook a hands-on analysis and evaluation of twenty entities operating in the EU ETS. The examined period comprises January 2013 to April 2016. The first chapter of the report at hand provides some background information, while chapter two presents a preliminary analysis of assumptions and observations on the characteristics and role of the energy and financial sector in general. Following the premise that large energy utilities and financial institutions are decisive market players in the EU ETS, ten utilities and ten players from the financial sector were selected for an in-depth analysis of their published transactions in the EUTL in chapter 3. The results of the preliminary analysis were then compared with the derived trading profiles on the basis of the EUTL data. The detailed, data-based understanding of the behaviour of the energy and financial sectors is summarised, discussed, and evaluated in this paper. Chapter 4 concludes on the findings, followed by an outlook and further analysis options in chapter 5.