EPP pushes to scrap EU carbon price on transport and heating

Nine national delegations within the European People's Party are calling for the outright repeal of ETS2, the EU's planned carbon price on transport and heating fuel suppliers, according to draft amendments obtained by journalists covering the European Parliament.

The Polish, Spanish, Italian, French, Romanian, Croatian, Slovenian, Slovak and Estonian EPP delegations back an amendment sponsored by Polish EPP lawmaker Adam Jarubas that reads: "ETS2 should be deleted." A softer amendment, backed by 10 national delegations, instead calls for ETS2 to be "postponed until 2031."

ETS2 is due to take effect from 2028. It applies the same cap-and-trade logic as the original EU Emissions Trading System — launched in 2005 for power plants and heavy industry — to suppliers of fuel for transport and heating. The scheme covers around 40% of the bloc's greenhouse gas emissions.

No majority currently exists in the European Parliament or among EU member states to delay or repeal ETS2. Several member governments, including Italy and Poland, pushed for a delay at a European Council meeting last week.

Separately, the European Commission proposed a one-year delay to rules requiring oil and gas importers to monitor, report and verify methane emissions. The EPP plans to push this week for a three-year delay to those methane rules, a change the fossil fuel sector and the US government have lobbied for.

EU legislators are reviewing a reform of the original Emissions Trading System, which sits in the same legislation as ETS2, making amendments to ETS2 procedurally simpler at this stage.