On 3 July, the European Parliament voted in favour of the European Commission’s (EC) proposal to postpone the auctioning of 900 million emission allowances (backloading) of the EU’s Emissions Trading System (ETS) for the 2013-2020 period (third ETS trading period). This represents the second attempt to rescue the EU ETS after the European Parliament voted against the EC’s proposal on 16 April 2013. The European Parliament’s endorsement of the proposal gives a mandate to the text’s rapporteur to begin negotiations with the Council in order to reach a first-reading agreement.