30% emissions target would "punish" chemicals industry

Brussels – The European chemicals industry has called on EU leaders to avoid raising the target for emissions savings from 20% to 30%, as this would damage industry for little environmental payback. The call came ahead of a major EU climate change summit.

In a joint letter to the presidents of the EU Commission, the Council and the Parliament, José Manuel Barroso, Herman Van Rompuy and Jerzy Buzek, the ECEG (European Chemical Employers Group) and EMCEF (European Mine, Chemical and Energy Workers’ Federation) said that the chemical sector is uniquely placed to drive economic and environmental improvement in Europe.

They stated that 30% savings could be delivered with “a shared international responsibility”, and noted that the products of the chemical industry already help deliver greenhouse gas savings two-three times greater than their emissions, With an effective global policy framework, this could rise to a ratio of more than 4:1 by 2030, their letter also argued.

Simon Marsh from ECEG said: “Without an international agreement on climate change, the strengthening of the reduction target would unnecessarily punish European industry. The competitiveness of our sector and with it our ability to manufacture products used to help everyone to save energy would severely suffer due to the lack of a level playing field.”

Reinhard Reibsch from EMCEF added: “Whilst recognising the need for an EU policy against climate change, we must seek to avoid job losses in energy intensive industries. A further increase of the agreed 20% target would create enormous risks for employment.”