About EUAs

A European Union allowance (EUA) is the official name for Europe’s emission allowances, which in 2008 was defined as the official Kyoto allowance for countries in the EU. One EUA entitles the holder to emit one ton of carbon dioxide or carbon-equivalent greenhouse gas. The EU member states issue new EUAs on February 28 every year to each company subjected to the EU’s emission trading scheme. These awards follow the allocation plan approved by the European Commission and are based on the Kyoto protocol’s obligations. EUAs are awarded for one year at a time. By April 30, companies are obliged to surrender (“pay”) the number of EUAs corresponding to their actual emissions in the preceding year. EUAs can also be saved from one year to another if a company releases less carbon dioxide than the EUAs it holds.

In the current phase, phase 3, the majority of power industry is not awarded EUAs and the power companies have to purchase the EUAs that they need for compliance on frequently arranged EUA auctions, bilaterally or at the trading platforms.

The EU ETS phase 3 (2013-2020) is about to end soon and a new EU ETS phase 4 will follow from 2021 to 2030 https://ec.europa.eu/clima/policies/ets_en. There is a four-month transition period between the 3rd and 4th phase lasting from Jan 1 to April 30, 2021. The EUAs for phase 4 will be auctioned in January 2021 and allocated in February 2021. However, only the EUAs for phase 3 can be used to fulfil the compliance obligations for year 2020, which should be surrendered by April 2021. As a consequence Nasdaq Clearing needs to secure that until April 30, 2021 the buyers purchasing EUA at Nasdaq for the compliance year 2020 will get eligible EUAs ( phase 3). From May 1, 2021 Nasdaq Clearing will accept both EUA phase 3 and 4 for delivery in line with the EU ETS scheme. 

EUA Products 

Use EUA futures to mitigate price risks of EUA or CER trading.

• Day Future contracts 
• Quarterly Future contracts for 2020-2026 
• Pre-delivery option for EUA net sellers to fulfill collateral requirements

EUA Futures are traded in EUR, with a minimum ticker size of 0.01, in trade lots of 1 000 EUAs, using 1 EUA (for 1 metric ton of CO2) as the contract base.

Today's trading and market prices >

Trading and Clearing of EUA Futures

Nasdaq Commodities offers a transparent and regulated marketplace for EUA Futures. As a member, you can place your orders through the Genium INET Workstation, our user-friendly and reliable trading system. Alternatively, we have partnered with a number of Independent Software Vendors that offer conformance tested trading applications that connect to our exchange. 

• Continuous trading in the electronic trading system from 08.00 to 18.00 CET (07:00-17:00 UKLT) 
• Trading and clearing of block trades from 07:45 until 18:15 CET (06:45-17:15 UKLT)  
• Tradable on Norwegian Bank Days

All trades are cleared by Nasdaq Clearing to eliminate counterpart credit risk.