The impact assessment of the EU ETS post-2020 reform proposal has been signed off by the European Commission’s review board, EU climate chief Miguel Arias Canete told Politico, a procedural step that improves the chances the bill will be published on July 15.

A previous version wasn’t successful because it didn’t explain the technicalities in a language “that is easy to understand,” Politico Europe reported the Commissioner as saying on Friday.

Arias Canete on Monday said the Commission is aiming to publish the proposal in mid-July despite his warnings earlier in the month it could be delayed until September.

The proposal will kickstart a lawmaking process that could last two years.

Although the measure is expected to deepen the market’s annual cap reduction from 1.74% to 2.2%, the main focus of the text will be on how industries will keep receiving free allowances rather than major changes to price-driving fundamentals.

The main market focus will initially be on what the Commission proposes to do with an estimated 700 million unallocated allowances left over from the current ETS trading phase, although analysts at Thomson Reuters Point Carbon said yesterday that this will have a negligible price impact.

By Ben Garside – ben@carbon-pulse.com