Dear customers, partners and friends of EEX,
 
I hope this finds you refreshed from the holiday season and ready for 2026!

We started the year off the back of records and firsts in 2025: the first ever Phase 5 trade for EU ETS1, the highest number of active members, followed by a record number of EU ETS1 auction participants in January this year. Moreover, in the previous year, EEX hosted over 200 EU ETS1 auctions (totalling over 3100 auctions) and was awarded the mandate to serve as the platform for auction and sale of national emission certificates in Germany from 2026. We have also improved our Options offering and introduced new products, such as the EU ETS2 Futures, and the WHS Futures based on the success of our GO Futures, which topped 40 TWh by the close of 2025.

Looking at our order book, our spreads have tightened with the addition of new market makers, both for the EU ETS and GO Futures. We are pleased to offer a fee reduction to continue supporting growth for our GO offerings.

In North America, our environmental markets remained robust despite geopolitical shifts. Open interest in our environmental future and options remained steady and renewable energy certificate futures grew in both volume and open interest. You can read further details below.

The coming months will have a number of developments for environmental and carbon markets in store. We at EEX are proud to continue contributing to societal decarbonisation and the energy transition by supporting governments shaping the future of ETS in the EU and around the world. We look forward to working closely with you to continue developing successful markets this year!

Please scroll below to see further details.
 

See you at E-world!
 

Steffen Köhler
COO | EEX

In partnership with IncubEx, we launched new Wind-Hydro-Solar (WHS) GO Futures in December last year to provide more versatile hedging tools for the guarantees of origin market, with a first trade still conducted in December. 

The new WHS GO Futures bundle the three most-traded renewable sources into a single trading instrument. Following market research and community feedback, EEX offers two new WHS GO contracts: one with only unsubsidised GOs and another mixed contract combining subsidised and unsubsidised GOs for flexible hedging. These products are designed  to provide more advanced tools for risk managing and to further build liquidity in EEX’s GO Futures market. 

This expansion builds on the significant momentum in the EEX GO market: Overall, a volume of more than 40 TWh was traded since launch of GO Futures in September with an open interest of more than 16 TWh. We are committed to further develop this market, in close collaboration with our customers and partners. 

For more information on the new GO Futures products, click the button below.

EU institutions have agreed to postpone the start of compliance under the EU ETS2 from 2027 to 2028. 

In response to this delay, EEX has suspended trading of its EU ETS2 futures with December 2027 and April 2028 expiries, a move effective from 17 November 2025 until further notice. All other maturities for the EU ETS2 futures, which EEX launched in July 2025, remain available for trading. This suspension ensures that the traded products align with the revised compliance schedule under the EU ETS2. 

In addition, to facilitate a smooth market entry, the European Commission has proposed targeted amendments to the ETS2's implementing framework. A key proposal is the introduction of early auctions, with a draft suggesting they could begin early 2027. This measure, which has been met with positive feedback from EEX and the wider industry, is designed to generate early price signals, enhance market liquidity, and provide financing for the Social Climate Fund. 

With the EU ETS2 now commencing in 2028, compliance obligation for companies in Germany will remain under the nEHS for which EEX has been awarded the mandate to conduct the auctions for nEHS certificates (nEZ) for 2026, for which all modalities have been published.