In July 2025, Glass Fibre Europe has submitted its official response to the European Commission’s public consultation on the future of the EU Emissions Trading System (ETS) beyond 2030. This contribution reflects the sector’s support to the EU climate neutrality objective, while advocating for an enabling framework that safeguards industrial competitiveness and facilitates the green transition.
The response underscores the importance of maintaining the EU ETS as a cornerstone of climate policy, but stresses that its effectiveness depends on key enabling conditions such as access to low-carbon energy, infrastructure investment, and demand-side incentives.
Some of the key messages from the response:
- Robust Carbon Leakage Protection: Request for continued free allocation for sectors not covered by the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM), and a call for harmonised and extended indirect cost compensation across all sectors exposed to carbon leakage.
- Realistic Decarbonisation Trajectory: Review of the Linear Reduction Factor (LRF) to align with the 2050 decarbonisation trajectory and avoid an unrealistic zero-cap scenario by 2040.
- Market Stability Reserve (MSR) Reform: Making allowances available, including invalidated allowances, available to support decarbonisation projects and prevent correction factors.
- Targeted Use of ETS Revenues: Earmarking of EU ETS revenues for industrial decarbonisation projects and clean energy development.
- Support for Innovation in the Industry: Continued backing for the Innovation Fund and the newly proposed Industrial Decarbonisation Bank.
- Recognition of Carbon Removals and CCU: Integration of carbon removal and carbon capture and utilisation (CCU) technologies into the ETS framework to support hard-to-abate sectors.
- Administrative simplification: Recommendations to harmonise reporting requirements across Member States, reduce audit burdens, and streamline permit renewal processes.