BRUSSELS — Last week, the very foundations of the European Union’s climate efforts started creaking under pressure.
For months, European capitals have attacked the bloc’s environmental policies, arguing onerous green rules were strangling their economies. But the EU’s single biggest weapon for slowing global warming remained off-limits.
That taboo was broken last week at two back-to-back summits focused on curing the continent’s economic malaise, as leaders argued high carbon prices under the EU Emissions Trading System (ETS) were a worrying symptom that needed to be remedied.
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It was a diagnosis that struck at the heart of EU green legislation.
