Open letter to Members of the European Parliament: time to vote for an EU Emissions Trading System (ETS) and a Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) that work for the climate and support industrial transformation

An open letter from various environmental and industrial organisations calling for a 68% reduction in ETS emissions, the phase-out of free allowances by 2030, and the use of CBAM as a replacement for carbon leakage protections to ensure the 'polluters pay' principle is upheld.

• The signatories advocate for a 68% reduction in ETS emissions, arguing this aligns with the European Parliament's 60% overall EU climate target and is necessary to limit temperature increases to 1.5°C.
• The current system of free allowances is criticised for failing to reduce emissions in energy-intensive industries and instead acting as a subsidy that generated €50 billion in windfall profits for the chemicals, cement, and steel sectors.
• The letter demands that free allowances for CBAM sectors be phased out by 2030 at the latest, asserting that extending this deadline would undermine the effectiveness of both the ETS and CBAM in reducing global and EU emissions.
• The authors argue that any remaining free allowances should be conditional upon climate neutrality plans and energy efficiency requirements, noting that the steel and cement sectors are projected to receive subsidies worth 85 billion EUR and 57 billion EUR respectively over the next 7 years at a carbon price of 85 EUR/t.

APA

Carbon Market Watch (n.d.). Open letter to Members of the European Parliament: time to vote for an EU Emissions Trading System (ETS) and a Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) that work for the climate and support industrial transformation. https://carbonmarketwatch.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/Letter-on-ETS-and-CBAM-for-plenary-1.pdf

Chicago

Carbon Market Watch. Open letter to Members of the European Parliament: time to vote for an EU Emissions Trading System (ETS) and a Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) that work for the climate and support industrial transformation. n.d. https://carbonmarketwatch.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/Letter-on-ETS-and-CBAM-for-plenary-1.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite press release |author=Carbon Market Watch |title=Open letter to Members of the European Parliament: time to vote for an EU Emissions Trading System (ETS) and a Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) that work for the climate and support industrial transformation |url=https://carbonmarketwatch.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/Letter-on-ETS-and-CBAM-for-plenary-1.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@misc{carbonmarketwatchndopen, author = {{Carbon Market Watch}}, title = {{Open letter to Members of the European Parliament: time to vote for an EU Emissions Trading System (ETS) and a Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) that work for the climate and support industrial transformation}}, publisher = {Carbon Market Watch}, url = {https://carbonmarketwatch.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/Letter-on-ETS-and-CBAM-for-plenary-1.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }