The European Union’s regulator will propose classifying spot carbon-dioxide contracts as financial instruments to better protect the world’s biggest emissions market from fraud, an EU draft document showed.
The European Commission opted to extend its Markets in Financial Instruments Directive, or Mifid, to cover spot carbon deals rather than design a tailor-made regime, according to the draft proposal obtained by Bloomberg News. The commission wants to enhance supervision of the market after thieves in January illegally transferred allowances valued at about 23 million euros ($31 million) at today’s prices.
