This is good news for the fight against climate change.
The price of a ton of carbon on the European market, the emission quota trading system (ETS, in English), has just passed the threshold of 100 euros.
The benchmark contract reached a peak of 100.70 euros on Tuesday during the day.
Read alsoGlobal warming: these “feedback loops” that could have devastating effects
The system, launched in 2005, obliges companies in energy-intensive industrial sectors, such as cement, steel or glass, oil refineries as well as electricity companies and airlines, to buy allowances corresponding to their polluting emissions.
The objective is to encourage these companies to invest in cleaner technologies.
Border taxation
After a long period of low prices due to an excess of permits in circulation, the price finally took off from 2018 following several reforms.
The latest, dating from the end of December, provides for a more marked reduction in the ceiling of allowances placed on the market and the gradual abolition of free permits granted to certain sectors in exchange for the establishment of a carbon tax system at the borders.
The rise has also accelerated in recent weeks as the April deadline nears by which companies must buy permits to cover last year's emissions.
Stronger demand from the electricity sector, which had to resort to coal - 7% increase in electricity production - to compensate for the lack of Russian gas, also contributed to the increase in the price per ton of carbon.
Not to mention the effect, according to some traders, of speculative buying.
