Keep making polluters pay
To the European Parliament, European Commission, and EU Member State governments
Petition
Big polluters and their corporate lobbyists are attacking one of the EU’s most important climate policies: the Emissions Trading System.
They’ve succeeded at delaying the launch of the second phase of this scheme to make pollution more expensive. Worse, they’ve blocked billions of euros in support that should be helping people deal with higher energy and transport costs.
What needs to be done:
- End fossil privileges. Stop delaying the introduction of the carbon price for road transport and buildings (ETS2), and don’t water it down.
- Invest in real, lasting solutions. Every Euro counts to make homes warmer, communities healthier, and clean transportation affordable.
- Put climate money to work for people. Expand the EU’s Social Climate Fund so support reaches those who need it most.
Why is this important?
Recently, this community secured a major victory: an ambitious climate target for Europe. Together, we pushed back against conservative and extremist forces - and won!
But this target is impossible to achieve if we stay hooked to fossil fuels.
We can incentivise companies to produce without using fossil fuels. This is called the ‘dirty industries pay’ scheme - and it works! Emissions have been cut by 50% in the energy and aviation sector. [1]
Now this successful scheme is to be expanded to other sectors, its enemies have put their well-oiled propaganda machines at work. A few days ago, they called for it to be weakened and postponed for years.
A handful of countries are championing the ‘dirty industries pay’ scheme, but many others are pushing to shelve it indefinitely. [2] With the final decision looming, we must urgently give more weight to those defending the scheme.
Together, we can call out corporate cronies and force governments to choose the people over pollution - as we’ve done before! If we remain silent, the likes of Repsol, Eni or Total will continue to profit while polluting Europe. Take one minute to defend Europe’s climate progress!
References:
[1] https://climate.ec.europa.eu/news-other-reads/news/eu-emissions-trading-system-has-reduced-emissions-sectors-covered-50-2005-2025-04-04_en
[2] https://www.reuters.com/sustainability/boards-policy-regulation/eight-countries-warn-eu-not-weaken-carbon-market-document-shows-2026-03-12/