TERNEUZEN, the Netherlands — Europe’s huge chemicals sector is campaigning to weaken the European Union’s most important climate policy — and Brussels is listening.
At a meeting in Antwerp on Wednesday, industry chiefs will attempt to persuade European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and national leaders to water down the Emissions Trading System (ETS), a cap-and-trade strategy to cut greenhouse gas emissions.
They come with a well-rehearsed pitch: Their sector, one of the biggest in Europe, is in crisis. Factories are being squeezed by a perfect storm of high energy prices, intense competition from China, weak demand from downstream industries — and the world’s most expensive carbon pricing scheme.
Virtually no other jurisdiction in the world faces carbon costs as high as the EU, they argue: If current plans to strengthen the scheme go ahead, Europe’s chemicals industry could be dead within a decade.
