Lead centre-right MEP suggests softening emissions-trading to help ‘suffering’ industries

EU governments would be forced to invest more in decarbonising industry to give the bloc’s struggling industries more time to adjust to net zero targets, under a proposal drafted by the lead MEP on the reform of the EU’s Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) on Friday (11 September). German centre-right MEP, Peter Liese, told reporters that his proposal would require governments to spend 75 percent of the revenue they collect from ETS permit sales on decarbonising local industries covered by the emissions trading system. The European Commission, in its draft published in July, had suggested a 50-percent threshold. Liese said his proposal was targeted at assisting EU industries, some of which have complained about high CO2 costs hurting their competitiveness, and better support investments in domestic industry and energy production. “If you have a screw and you pull it too hard it can break,” said Liese, adding that “many industries are suffering.” In particular, he said that it was “impossible” for the aviation, cement, steel and chemical industries to reach zero emissions by 2039. ‘Step-by-step’ His amendments to the commission text would also reduce the emissions cap in the ETS by 3.4 percent per year from 2031, then 2.3 percent from 2036. “You cannot emit forever,” Liese told reporters, “but it needs to be predictable and it must be step-by-step”, he added. Liese’s European People's Party group, the largest in the European Parliament, has been the main driver of a coordinated pushback against the many of the ‘Green Deal’ laws passed by EU lawmakers between 2019 and 2024, amid industry concerns that the cost of complying is hurting their competititiveness with the likes of China and the United States.