Chemicals industry employers, unions urge climate change rethink

Brussels - The European Chemical Employers Group, ECEG and trade union body the European Mining, Chemical and Energy Federation (EMCEF) have called on the European Commission to look again at its proposals to tackle climate change. The new proposals are phase 3 of the European Union’s Emissions Trading Scheme (EU ETS). In their present state they will increase costs to businesses by between 10 and 35%.

In a joint statement, the two groups urged the Commission to focus on the competitiveness of energy intensive industries, including the chemical industry, and particularly the employment situation. They warned that if current proposals become law, there could be major dis-investment in Europe.

The ECEG/EMCEF statement pointed out that the Commission proposal attacks small businesses without significant environmental benefit, could cause some companies to move to regions of the world not covered by ETS - generating carbon emissions elsewhere and fails to take into account global competitiveness.

“I am fully behind the fight against global climate change, but unless the chemical sector and all manufacturing industries are able to use benchmarking rather than the current auctioning proposals on allocations, I fear the loss of many thousands of jobs and little environmental progress," said Reinhard Reibsch, general secretary of EMCEF.

Chairman of the ECEG Simon Marsh, meanwhile,  urged the European Parliament and Council to modify the Commission’s plans “everyone should unite in tackling climate change but causing industry to leave Europe would not lead to the low carbon world we all seek”.