The European Parliament Rejects The Back-Loading Proposal

On 16 April, the European Parliament voted against the European Commission’s proposal, known as “back-loading”, aimed to reverse the falling price of carbon that has resulted from a surplus of permits in the ETS market. The vote was far from being unanimous: out of 712 Members of the European Parliament present, 334 supported the rejection the proposal, whereas 315 voted against the rejection and 63 abstained. The carbon market fell by the highest rate ever following the vote, to a record low price of 2.63 euro.