We examine the impact of liberalization, energy efficiency, renewable energy, and security of supply legislations on the risk-return profiles of European energy utilities over the period 1996 to 2013. Results show that, after controlling for equity market and commodity risk factors, the EU...

The trading of carbon dioxide (CO2) emission allowances, or permits, has been established in recent years as one of the primary mechanisms for tackling global warming and climate change. The European Union (EU) has taken an important initiative in this direction by establishing in 2003 the first...

The EU energy system is in the middle of a period of profound change. Financing the transition to a low-carbon EU economy is expected to require $2.2 trillion by 2035, requiring substantial private capital. However, investors are hesitant to commit capital due to many challenges facing the...

The EU energy system is in the middle of a period of profound change. Financing the transition to a low-carbon EU economy is expected to require $2.2 trillion by 2035, requiring substantial private capital. However, investors are hesitant to commit capital due to many challenges facing the...

The EU Emissions Trading Scheme (EU-ETS), the major policy tool of the EU for achieving its Kyoto target, is the largest pollution permit market in the world. Following the lessons learned from the trial phase (2005-2007), new measures were adopted for the Kyoto commitment period (2008-2012) in...

This paper provides a review of pertinent trading, regulatory and policy issues in the EU-ETS since 2005. We review the first two phases of the scheme and speculate on auctioning related issues in the third phase. Our report documents a number of variables contributing to inefficiencies in Phase...