This July, the EC proposed a reform of the Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) post 2020. This reform is much awaited by Europe's glass industries. Because of their long investment cycles, glassmakers have repeatedly called for predictability and stability to be at the core of the ETS to ensure that expected levels or Green House Gas (GHG) emission reductions are achieved, while securing investments in clean manufacturing technologies. "Thriving glass industries in the EU are essential for Europe to achieve its competitive low carbon economy objective" said J Bordat, President, Glass Alliance Europe. "Energy-efficient, fully recyclable and innovative glass products and solutions will remain essential to Europe's industrial base and value chains. In the ETS reform debate, careful consideration must be given to the sustained competitiveness and growth of Europe's glass industries." Europe's glass industries are all exposed to the risk of carbon and investment leakage. Pending a global agreement ensuring comparable GHG reduction efforts between EU manufacturers and their competitors, glass plants must receive a free allocation up to the level of the benchmark. However, allocation rules must be reformed to be based on recent production levels working with ambitious, yet achievable, benchmarks, in addition to a flexibility mechanism that leaves room for industrial growth. GAE calls on the Parliament and Council to amend the proposal to ensure that the EU ETS reform guarantees that the levels of free allocation allocated to the sectors deemed to be at risk of carbon leakage are connected to industry best performance levels and are not reduced by way of applying holistic corrective factors. In addition, both direct and indirect costs related to manufacturing processes should be take into account when assessing sectors and sub-sectors at risk of carbon leakage. FEVE, the EU Container Glass Federation, will be actively supporting GAE to work on these concerns with its partners of the Alliance of Energy Intensive Industries. The objective is to convince the European Parliament and Council to address these shortcomings.
