Dóra Fazekas Carbon Market Implications for new EU - UniCredit ...

interesting to examine what percent of Hungarian participants entered the market prior to the April
2006 deadline. Was the last month of the first year of the pilot phase sufficient for obligated
companies to sell their surpluses on the market?
During the first compliance year, more than 9 million Hungarian emissions allowances changed
hands 43 through 263 transactions. The value of these transactions was some 45.5 billion HUF 44
(approximately 0.1% of the GDP 45 ). This equaled more than 54% of all pilot phase transactions.
During the second and third year, 5.3 million and 2.7 million emissions allowances were traded in
the market, through 116 and 104 transactions, respectively. Over the course of these two years, the
value of the Hungarian transactions traded reached 13 billion HUF and 1 billion HUF. See table 23
and figures 43 and 44. The columns on the left in figure 44 show the number of allowances traded
on the left-hand side Y-axis, with the right-hand side indicating the number of transactions; the
chart on the right-hand side provides the value of the transactions in HUF.)
Figure 44. Hungarian EUA transactions during the pilot phase
Source: author’s graph based on Hungarian registry
In terms of the value of the transactions conducted in the market: the first year accounted for three-
fourths of the entire pilot phase, the second year for one-fourth and the third year was essentially
negligible as far as value is concerned. Half of the market transactions were conducted within
sixteen months (between January 2005 and April 2006), as opposed to the twelve months of the
other two trading periods; at the same time, trading was only possible for approximately ten days
during the first sixteen months. Half of all transactions conducted were conducted during these ten
days. This accounted for over three-fourths (77%) of the value traded during the entire pilot period.
During the second year, one-fourth of the allowances were traded in the market, and the value of
these transactions was also roughly proportionate to that. In the third year, only less than one-fourth
of the allowances were traded, accounting for merely 0.17% of the total transactions of the pilot
43
Market transactions = international transactions + domestic transactions
44
9 million tons x 20.18 EUR/tonne x 248.05 HUF/EUR
45
Based on the Major Macroeconomic Indicators statistics, November 20, 2008. (http://www2.pm.gov.hu)
166