On October 24th, Magdalena Vallebona Cerame-Unie Climate & Energy Manager presented the European ceramic industry perspective on the topic of EU ETS review at the EPP SMEs Circle, which is a regular meeting of MEPs and MEP assistants on the policy issues relevant to SMEs held during the European Parliament plenary sessions in Strasbourg.

Ceramic industry is in majority composed of SMEs (80%) and has the highest number of installations in the EU ETS among other manufacturing industries (10% of all industrial installations). Most of ETS ceramic installations are small emitters (below 25kT CO2/year). In the presentation the consequences of such heterogeneity and composition of ceramic industry were underlined. The profitability indicator (GVA), used to measure the exposure of sectors to carbon leakage risks, tends not be representative for SME-driven sectors. As the labour costs are included in the GVA, the emission intensity of these sectors is underestimated. The necessity of the availability of qualitative assessment for all sectors, in particular energy – and/or labour-intensive, was mentioned. 

For more information about Cerame-Unie position on post 2020 EU ETS directive review go here and to read Cerame-Unie statement with regards to the ETS “tiered approach” proposals here.