{"id":118999,"date":"2025-10-21T20:03:46","date_gmt":"2025-10-21T18:03:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/eeb.org\/?p=118999"},"modified":"2025-10-23T14:25:31","modified_gmt":"2025-10-23T12:25:31","slug":"weakening-ets2-will-not-protect-citizens-but-reward-climate-laggards","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/eeb.org\/en\/weakening-ets2-will-not-protect-citizens-but-reward-climate-laggards\/","title":{"rendered":"Weakening ETS2 will not protect citizens, but reward climate laggards"},"content":{"rendered":"

Brussels, 21 October 2025 – EU governments worried about high carbon prices are pushing<\/a> the Commission to loosen the rules on the Market Stability Reserve (MSR), allowing more emissions allowances into the new ETS2 carbon market for road transport and buildings. Environmental groups warn that such a move would undermine the EU\u2019s climate targets. The European Environmental Bureau (EEB) and Carbon Market Watch (CMW) stress that the only sensible way to prevent high prices is to cut emissions now, not delay action.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cAllowing more emission permits to reduce high carbon prices is a short-sighted measure proposed by governments that have been too slow to tackle the real issue. High carbon prices reflect high fossil demand – that\u2019s the root cause EU governments should address, not the symptom. While governments worry about high prices, gas boilers and internal combustion engine cars continue to be sold, fuelling fossil demand despite EVs and heat pumps being readily available”<\/em>, said Luke Haywood<\/strong>, Head of Climate and Energy at the European Environmental Bureau.<\/strong><\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

There are smarter ways to protect households without weakening climate action, such as giving early access<\/a> to ETS2 revenues to invest in clean technologies before the carbon market begins, and redistributing revenues through targeted direct payments<\/a> to citizens.<\/p>\n

\u201cRather than cave in to member states seeking to undermine climate action, the Commission must uphold the crucial environmental and social principles of ETS2. National governments don\u2019t need to weaken this key policy as they already have it within their power to make the ETS2 price picture less daunting by undertaking socially targeted climate investments,\u201d\u00a0 <\/em>said Emma Wikstr\u00f6m<\/strong>, expert on carbon markets at Carbon Market Watch.<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Frontloading ETS2 revenues: a smarter move<\/strong><\/p>\n

We welcome the European Commission\u2019s proposal to frontload ETS2 revenues via the European Investment Bank. Early access to these funds can help households switch to clean heating and transport, cutting emissions before the carbon market kicks in. The sooner these investments are made in fossil-free solutions, the lower ETS2 prices will be; and the smoother the transition for households and small businesses.<\/p>\n

ENDs<\/p>\n

Notes for editors<\/strong><\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Why the MSR2 non-paper should be a non-starter<\/a><\/li>\n
  2. \n

    Open Letter to Commission on Market Stability Reserve reforms<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n

  3. \n

    Why direct payments are essential to make household carbon pricing work in the EU<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Brussels, 21 October 2025 – EU governments worried about high carbon prices are pushing the Commission to loosen the rules on the Market Stability Reserve (MSR), [\u2026]<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":64,"featured_media":119000,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[123,3,4],"tags":[968,506,990,580,991],"class_list":["post-118999","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-climate-change","category-news","category-press-release","tag-carbon-pricing","tag-climate-action","tag-ets2","tag-heating","tag-transport"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/eeb.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/META-featured-image-right-size-18.png","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/eeb.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118999","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/eeb.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/eeb.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eeb.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/64"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eeb.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=118999"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/eeb.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118999\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eeb.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/119000"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/eeb.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=118999"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eeb.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=118999"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eeb.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=118999"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}