EU carbon prices briefly slid 40% to a record low after politicians opposed plans to support the market, raising concerns prices could hit zero and sending a warning to European governments to pull together in lowering carbon emissions.
Prices in the EU’s Emissions Trading System (ETS) on Thursday (24 January) dropped to €2.81 a metric tonne after a vote in the European Parliament’s energy and industry committee opposing a scheme known as “backloading” – or supporting prices by extracting allowances from the market and reinjecting them later.

In volatile trade, they later climbed back above €4.