Carbon prices are supposed to provide a readout of progress — or the lack of it — in the energy transition. The EU’s Emissions Trading System prices the element at about €86 per tonne of carbon at present, close to historic peaks.
That looks odd to one trader, Per Lekander at Clean Energy Transition. He thinks ETS carbon prices are overvalued, partly because Europe has done a great job in cutting emissions.
He may be right on the first proposition, wrong on the second. Europe’s natural gas and thermal coal prices more than halved this year alone. Historically, ETS carbon prices move in line with gas prices, given their link to power costs.