Impact of Eu Ets on Sustainable Development of its Participants in Latvia

Latvia is covered by the European Union Emissions Trading System (EU ETS) and therein 80 participants from Latvia have participated. The goal of the paper is to analyse the impact of the EU ETS on the sustainable development of its participants in Latvia. The concept of sustainable development is explored with respect to both macro and micro scale and in the context of sustainable development the EU ETS is described. The impact of the EU ETS on its participants in Latvia is considered by means of methods of quantitative and qualitative analysis. It has been established that in past the participants of the EU ETS from Latvia had generally beneficial positions in the EU ETS; hence although the EU ETS did not directly promote greenhouse gas emission reductions, it provided opportunities to gain additional profits and many of the EU ETS participants in Latvia made use of them. In addition, certain interrelationships have been identified between the data on the EU ETS participants performing EUA trading and the data on the EU ETS participants not performing EUA trading. It has been concluded that the EU ETS might have contributed towards the sustainable development of its participants in Latvia within its certain dimensions.