The Eurasian Climate Brief

← The Eurasian Climate Brief30. Aug. 2023 · 29 Min.

How one Bulgarian tycoon could get away with gaming the EU's carbon market

How one Bulgarian tycoon could get away with gaming the EU's carbon market30. Aug. 202329 Min.

This week, the Eurasian Climate Brief team heads to the Balkans, Bulgaria, to look into the cracks of the European Union's carbon market (a.k.a., EU ETS). In July 2021, an investigation by Eleonora Vio and Daniela Sala for the Organised Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) found that two Bulgarian power plants appeared to have under-declared their carbon emissions. If true, this would mean the EU ETS would have lost around 30 million euros in emissions tax. Months later in Februar...