Top US trade official Jamieson Greer has promised MEPs that EU steel products will face lower tariffs” <a target="_blank">(Photo: Periódico Resumen)</a>
Cefic, Europe’s powerful chemical lobby, has campaigned relentlessly to weaken the emissions trading system

Economy

Row over EU emissions trading, as industry hits back at chemical lobby

By Wester van Gaal,
Amsterdam
,

Over 100 European companies and investors are urging EU leaders to protect the bloc’s carbon market, pushing back against the chemical lobby’s attempts to make it look like industry is united in wanting lower carbon prices. 

“Like the European Council, we the undersigned are deeply concerned about Europe’s competitiveness,” their joint letter published on Tuesday (10 March) states. 

But calls to suspend the EU emissions trading system (ETS) amount to “a serious misdiagnosis of the problem”, the letter warns, ahead of the leaders’ summit in Brussels next week (19 March), where the future of the EU carbon market is expected to take centre stage.

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Cefic, Europe’s powerful chemical lobby, has campaigned relentlessly to weaken the emissions trading system

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Author Bio

Wester van Gaal Wester van Gaal is our economics editor. He joined EUobserver in September 2021. Previously, he was editor-in-chief of Motherboard, Vice Media’s technology and science website, and worked as a climate economy journalist for The Correspondent. He is based in Amsterdam, the Netherlands.