EU ETS

Policy areas / Climate & Energy / EU ETS

EU ETS

-36%, total decrease in CO2 emissions in the sector between
2005 and 2022

In brief

EU Emission Trading Scheme (EU ETS) is the main policy instrument to incentivise the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions in the European Union. The EU ETS is the world’s first major carbon market and remains the largest one. Started in 2005, the system has now entered in its fourth phase (2021-2030). The EU ETS directive has been recently reviewed by the legislator to adapt it to 2050 climate neutrality target and the intermediate target set for 2030.

Why is it important

Glass fibre manufacturing is an energy intensive activity. Therefore, the European plants are covered by the EU ETS and must pay for the industrial emissions resulting from the production of continuous filament glass fibre products. Between 2005 and 2022, the sector has reduced its total CO2 emissions reported under the EU ETS (EUTL) by 36%.

Our view

The European continuous filament glass fibre sector has the ambition to be climate neutral by 2050. To the glass fibre industry, it is essential that the legislative framework is conducive for the industry transformation while preserving its capacity to innovate and invest. The regulatory framework should support the industry effort by:

– Preserving the investment capacity in the industry and provide for a predictable framework.
 Preserving the free allocations to an installation to protect products not covered by the CBAM against the risk of carbon leakage.

 Reviewing the rules for compensating against the indirect costs linked to electricity prices to allow the compensation of the continuous filament glass fibre installations.

– Supporting innovative projects for the transition of the glass fibre industry to climate neutrality with the ETS Innovation Fund.

Supporting documents