The European chemical industry “supports the transition towards climate neutrality. Nevertheless, further transformation requires the enabling conditions”, Cefic, the European Chemical Industry Council, warned on 25 June, a few days before the revision of the ETS emissions trading system for CO2 emission allowances.
These enabling conditions include “affordable and abundant low-carbon energy, market pull measures for low-carbon products, energy and carbon storage capacity and transport infrastructures, strong carbon leakage protection, and effective protection against unfair competition”.
The ETS “must be urgently adapted well before 2030 into a more flexible, and industry-supportive framework reflecting industrial realities and enabling companies to remain competitive while progressing towards the EU’s climate objectives”.
The cost of carbon “should be mitigated for companies, as long as the climate transition is not yet technically and economically feasible. Without such adjustments, Europe risks losing industrial capacity without delivering any climate benefit, while increasing dependencies”.
Cefic has drawn up a set of principles that should guide any revision: - a realistic cap trajectory; - strong carbon leakage prevention mechanisms; - appropriate benchmark values fully reflecting the situation of the chemical sector; - removal of the MSR (market stability reserve) invalidation rule; - avoidance of conditionality for carbon leakage mitigation; - elimination of conflicting regulations through a coherent legal framework.
Link to the position: https://aeur.eu/f/mnv (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)