Carbon Market Watch is urging EU lawmakers to abolish the carbon emissions trading scheme (ETS) after it was revealed that cement producers took EUR5bn windfall from scheme between 2008 and 2015.

The watchdog used analysis by consultancy CE Delft and delved into the leading cement producers annual reports to find out the financial benefit of the ETS to cement producers. Companies like Lafarge, HeidelbergCement and Cemex profited from selling carbon allowances they received for free, substituting cheaper international offsets and passing through costs to customers.

The ETS is a cornerstone of Brussels climate policy, intended to drive emissions cuts across the economy in a cost-effective way.

Meanwhile, European cement association, CEMBUREAU, says in regard to the EU Emissions Trading Scheme its main arguements call for a global level playing field: climate change is a global challenge and needs to be tackled by comparable and equivalent measures by the major jurisdictions around the world, precisely to avoid global distortions of competition:
•    The best performing plants in Europe (which is less than five per cent of the total under current EU-ETSii) need to be rewarded for the efforts already undertaken and need a full protection against the risk of carbon leakage, as acknowledged by the Heads of State and Government in October 2014.
•    A dynamic allocation system is required, so as to align allocation to production and thus avoid overallocation.

In addition, CEMBUREAU states it is in favour of a level playing field without subsidies distorting competition with alternative fuel use which currently accounts for 41 per cent of the cement industry’s fuel needs and represents an annual CO2 reduction of 18Mt.