Rome, 11 February 2026 - In view of tomorrow's informal retreat of European leaders on competitiveness, Confindustria calls for the temporary suspension of the ETS for the manufacturing sector, a halt to ETS2 before its entry into force, and the suspension of the maritime ETS.

The request comes on the eve of the review of the system scheduled for the third quarter of the year, in an economic, technological and geopolitical context in which Italian industry is registering a growing gap between the obligations under the European mechanism and the actual conditions to support decarbonisation, especially in the hard-to-abate sectors.

“As Europe's second industrial power and exporter, we call on the European Union to temporarily suspend the Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) for the manufacturing sector, gas-fired thermoelectric production, shipping, buildings and mobility,” said Confindustria President Emanuele Orsini.

“In a profoundly changed geopolitical context, the ETS, in its current configuration, has shown all its limits, turning from a decarbonisation tool into a vehicle for financial speculation. This is why, also representing Europe's second industrial and exporting nation, we demand that the system be suspended in order to be thoroughly rethought. The objectivity of the facts is there for all to see. The ETS is an unbalanced system, which does not generate the decarbonisation benefits to which it aspires, while in fact burdening the competitive capacity of European industry. Since 1990, global emissions have increased by 70%, driven mainly by China, whose cumulative emissions now exceed those of the entire European Union.

However,' Orsini continues, 'only about 25% of global emissions are covered by ETS, and the European system remains by far the most expensive. Strategic sectors - such as steel, chemicals and ceramics, which in Italy are already among the most decarbonised globally - risk being squeezed out of international markets without rapid EU intervention. And it is not enough, going forward it will be worse. The demand for energy is set to grow at a fast pace in the coming years and this will lead to a stress on supplies and a rise in prices.

Therefore, it is urgent to stop the ETS in order to avoid increasing the burden of energy costs on businesses and households even more. And this is also the responsibility of a distorting price formation mechanism, which, to put it simply, charges so much not only for gas energy but also (and this is deadly) for renewables and hydropower. Practically anyone who consumes good or bad energy pays for it in the same way, not incentivising virtuous behaviour. The sum of all these costs is bringing industry and our security, not only economic, to its knees.

A credible and comprehensive industrial strategy is needed. The reduction of CO2 emissions must go hand in hand with the conditions necessary to compete globally - especially access to affordable and fully decarbonised energy. That is why,” he concludes, 'we need to suspend the ETS and rethink energy and decarbonisation policy within a holistic framework to defend and promote European industry.