At a working lunch at the European Parliament in Brussels on Tuesday 30 June, Peter Liese (EPP, German) presented his group’s priorities for the forthcoming revision of the Emissions Trading System (ETS), scheduled by the European Commission for 15 July.
According to Peter Liese, the main thing is to reward decarbonisation pioneers, which is impossible if the price of CO2 does not rise. “I suggested a bonus system when I was rapporteur in 2021, so that those that are better than the benchmark should get additional free allowances, even more than the others get”, he explained. “So these kind of elements we need to look at.”
The German delegation of the EPP group has proposed reducing the linear reduction factor, Peter Liese said. This means that the cap on carbon allowances could be reduced more gradually each year.
The group has also called for slower implementation of the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM).
The EPP is also in favour of introducing international carbon credits (permitted under Article 6 of the Paris Agreement), but proposes that they should be purchased only by the Commission or a person authorised by it.
Lastly, they do not want free allowances to be able to disappear completely in 2039, since “even negative emissions can’t be introduced”, according to the MEP.
All these priorities are listed in a working document by the German delegation of the EPP and on the MEP’s website.
Steel industry players support ETS. The lunch also brought together players from the European steel industry (SHS, Dillinger, Saarstahl, SSAB, Outokumpu, GravitHy and Salzgitter AG), which on that occasion published a joint statement on the ETS and the CBAM, arguing that these are essential instruments for investment.
They are calling for the signal provided by the ETS to be maintained, oppose any change in the rules that would penalise pioneers (in particular by reversing the gradual phase-out of free allowances) and are asking for an extension of the scope of the CBAM (see EUROPE 13887/2).
These companies also pledged to make “more than €10 billion in CAPEX investments in low-emission production and asset modernisation to secure a clean industrial future for Europe”.
Read the joint statement: https://aeur.eu/f/mnp (Original version in French by Nadège Delépine)