InfluenceMap, a global think tank tracking more than 1,000 companies and 300 trade associations, analysed private-sector arguments for and against the Emissions Trading System (ETS) during 2025 and 2026.
The think tank thus found that, among companies engaging with public decision-makers on the ETS, “45% argued for an ambitious system, while 44% advocated a less ambitious system”.
Both camps use competitiveness as an argument to justify their position. The most common arguments against the current system are that the number of free allowances is insufficient, that the carbon price is too high and that the conditions are not in place for industrial transformation.
Yet, “European Commission figures show that free allowances covered 85% of industrial emissions between 2021 and 2025, meaning that the average effective carbon price paid by industry in 2025 (around €10/tCO2) represented only a small fraction of the average carbon price that year, which was €70/tCO2”, according to data compiled by InfluenceMap.
Moreover, the increase in the carbon price is generating increasingly large ETS revenues, intended to finance industrial decarbonisation, the think tank stresses. Lastly, InfluenceMap cites the Renewable Energy Directive and the State aid framework of the Clean Industrial Deal (CISAF) as two enabling frameworks in support of industrial decarbonisation.
See the analysis: https://aeur.eu/f/mn8 (Original version in French by Nadège Delépine)