Industry expects Paris climate summit to be a deal-breaker, Beyrer tells Polish minister

The Emission Trading Scheme (ETS) and the COP21 Paris climate summit were the main topics discussed with Polish minister Marcin Korolec. BusinessEurope Director General Markus J. Beyrer highlighted that the current ETS reform proposal fails to safeguard the competitiveness of European industry by unnecessarily reducing the volume of free allowances in a drastic manner, thus raising the risk of investment leakage and exposing industry to unfair competition from countries without comparable climate efforts. On the state of climate negotiations, Beyrer signalled the positive momentum created by the publication of Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDCs), but warned that judging by most pledges seen so far, it is unclear how these will impact the sectors exposed to international trade, particularly in major competing economies. He added: industry expects the Paris climate summit to be a deal-breaker for European business.