In the light of the financial and economic crisis, the EU has further developed and tightened its regulation of the financial market in Europe. This process has also had an impact on the actors in the European carbon market and their trading strategies. This final report brings together the results of three analyses.

In the last few years, regulation of European financial markets has evolved – primarily through the adoption of the second EU Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (MiFID II) and further EU Directives and Regulations, including those on market abuse and money laundering. While the carbon market is not their primary target, these new developments nonetheless have an impact on the European trade of emissions allowances within the framework of the EU Emissions Trading System (EU ETS). In the context of this project, Ecologic Institute and its partners, FutureCamp and Professor Weber of the University of Zürich, investigates how the regulation of the financial market has developed recently, how these changes influence market access for actors in the carbon market and how the behavior of plant operators may change – or have changed already – in reaction to the new legal guidelines.