Emissions Trading for Cleaner Production in the Old and New EU Member States?

This paper examines the success of the European Union Emissions Trading System (EU ETS) in inducing cleaner production in the EU based on the first two trading periods. It fills a literature gap by constructing a measure of clean production and conducting an ex-post macro-level analysis of the EU ETS impacts in EU15 compared to EU12. Results of panel regression analysis robustly show that EU ETS in both EU12 and EU15 (i) has positive impact on clean production of regulated industries, (ii) does not induce spillovers of cleaner technologies and processes to non-regulated industries, and (iii) does not affect clean production at the national level. In addition, share of renewables in energy consumption has a positive and crisis a negative impact on the clean production. Results support further tightening and broader coverage of EU ETS regulation and provision of funds from the EU ETS for development of renewable energy technologies.