Tumbling prices and low liquidity are hitting the European Union Emissions Trading System (EU ETS) as a result of uncertainty over the future of a plan to postpone – or ‘back-load’ – the sale of a huge amount of European Union Allowances (EUAs).

Questions about whether the plan will be enacted have left the market on its last legs, say analysts. “Participants don’t want a market that is half alive and half dead. They want a market with reasonable certainty – otherwise they will kill the half