ECR Co-Chairman Nicola Procaccini has called for a fundamental review of the EU Emissions Trading System (ETS), warning that Europe’s current climate policies are driving up energy costs, weakening industrial competitiveness and placing growing pressure on businesses and families across Europe.

Speaking as the opening speaker in a topical debate requested by the ECR Group in the European Parliament in Strasbourg, Procaccini outlined three key priorities for reforming the ETS system and stopping further deindustrialisation in Europe.

“A revision of the benchmark parameters is needed. If we eliminate free allowances, we will not achieve a green transition: we will condemn our manufacturing industry to being erased from world markets.

“The distortive effects of ETS in the maritime sector must be corrected. An ideological measure which does not reduce global emissions by a single gram, but forces maritime trade to avoid European ports, diverting routes towards North African ports in order to escape our taxes.

“Stop ETS2, whose methods and timing risk being disastrous. Extending this tax to domestic heating and road transport means declaring war on our businesses, workers and families,” he said.

Procaccini argued that the Green Deal had imposed unrealistic targets on Europe while failing to deliver meaningful environmental benefits.

“The ideological approach of the Green Deal has chained us to unrealistic objectives, which damage our economy and at the same time do not help the environment at all, as some naively believed,” he said.

He warned that Europe was sacrificing economic growth and industrial strength while global emissions continued to rise elsewhere.

“The European Union as a whole produces barely 7 per cent of global CO2 emissions, and yet year after year we continue to record peaks in global CO2 emissions. Simply because they are moving elsewhere,” he said.

Procaccini also stressed that environmental protection and industrial competitiveness should not be treated as opposites, calling instead for technological innovation and technological neutrality.

“Defending the environment is not only about emitting fewer greenhouse gases. To defend the environment, technological innovation and freedom of choice between different technological options are needed, something that only the most competitive and dynamic liberal economies are capable of encouraging,” he said.

The ECR Group argues that Europe needs a more pragmatic and balanced climate and energy policy focused on affordable energy, industrial resilience and economic growth rather than further regulatory burdens on citizens and businesses.

ENDS

Procaccini’s speech reads in full:

Thank you, President,

the debate that the European Conservatives are bringing to Parliament touches the heart of our common destiny. Today in Strasbourg we are not discussing cold market algorithms, but how to defend the survival of Europe’s productive and social base. And even how to defend the environment.

The ideological approach of the Green Deal has chained us to unrealistic objectives, which damage our economy and at the same time do not help the environment at all, as some naively believed. The ETS credits system that is the tax on carbon dioxide emissions on whatever is produced in Europe was conceived in a season of green and socialist utopias which clashes with the reality of today and tomorrow.

Instead of focusing on adaptation to climate change, investing resources in the protection of territories and people, the choice was made to sacrifice the growth of the European economy and support for people, especially the most vulnerable, on the altar of ‘climate mitigation’.

The European Union as a whole produces barely 7 per cent of global CO2 emissions, and yet year after year we continue to record peaks in global CO2 emissions. Simply because they are moving elsewhere. Nevertheless, I would be tempted to cite the data from the Copernicus programme certifying a cooler Earth temperature in 2025 compared to 2024 and 2023. But that is not the point. I say it only to suggest modestly that, certainly, carbon dioxide and methane gas contribute to determining the Earth’s temperature, but there are also other factors influencing it, perhaps in a more significant way.

Defending the environment is not only about emitting fewer greenhouse gases. To defend the environment, technological innovation and freedom of choice between different technological options are needed — something that only the most competitive and dynamic liberal economies are capable of encouraging. A great environmentalist such as Michael Shellenberger caused a stir when he said: ‘In rich countries there is greater resilience, so let us focus on making individuals richer and more resilient, not poorer, if we want to save the planet.’

While we chose the path of “happy degrowth”, the rest of the world started running fast, thanking Europe for deciding to eliminate itself. The ECR Group is calling for a change of direction on the ETS system, based on common sense and structured around three priorities.

First: a revision of the benchmark parameters is needed. If we eliminate free allowances, we will not achieve a green transition: we will condemn our manufacturing industry to being erased from world markets.

Second: the distortive effects of ETS in the maritime sector must be corrected. An ideological measure which does not reduce global emissions by a single gram, but forces maritime trade to avoid European ports, diverting routes towards North African ports in order to escape our taxes.

Third: stop ETS2, whose methods and timing risk being disastrous. Extending this tax to domestic heating and road transport means declaring war on our businesses, workers and families.

We are conservatives also because we try to reason with those who do not think like us. We would like a complete revision of ETS, but we are prepared to seek compromises. Which are necessary given the urgency of the crisis we are experiencing.

Our role is not to start fires, but to put them out. Never more than today is our role precious and indeed indispensable. As Giuseppe Prezzolini wrote: ‘The conservative is a brake on utopia and utopians, who fall in love with things and ideas never tested and which, when realised, turn out to be very different from how they imagined them.’

Thank you.