EU: Macron says ETS system not working well, rules to be reviewed in March

Bilzen (Belgium), 12 February (LaPresse) – “I think we need to maintain a carbon market, and the ETS system is a system that, in its structure, is relevant. I defend our Green Deal and our climate agenda, but they must be made compatible with competitiveness. It would be a strategic mistake to say that competitiveness means abandoning climate action. That would be completely wrong.‘ These are the words of French President Emmanuel Macron at the end of the informal summit of EU leaders on competitiveness at Alden Biesen Castle in Belgium. ’I’ll tell you this: in many sectors, we have been too slow. We are talking about China. It engages in unfair competition in some sectors, but it is very good at clean technologies because it made the change before us and invested more money. In fact, it has invested more private and public money, so we must not remove the incentives and market signals that we have put in place with the ETS. But it is clear that today it is not working well for some countries because of the problem of marginal costs in some countries that still depend on fossil fuels, because of speculation on options and ETS auctions,” he explains. “The ETS, which should be around 30-40 (euros per tonne), is currently at over 80, and this is weighing heavily on some economies. Therefore, the Commission will come back in March with concrete solutions to reduce this burden. There are several technical solutions, but we must maintain the consistency of our carbon market and the consistency of a competitive and decarbonising Europe,” he reports.