Emissions Trading Scheme link-up plan welcomed
Link-up a step in right direction but Government must tackle wider challenges for UK manufacturing, says MPA
THE Government’s proposal to link the UK and EU Emissions Trading Schemes (ETS), announced on 19 May 2025, has been cautiously welcomed by UK cement and lime makers.
The Mineral Products Association (MPA) has been calling for a link between the UK and EU schemes for several years and welcomed the announcement as one part of the policy framework needed to support the sector.
However, the MPA, which represents UK producers of essential cement and lime, has also repeated its calls for the Government to tackle the high electricity costs that exacerbate the issues facing the industry, undermining its international competitiveness and making it vulnerable to imports.
The MPA has also reiterated the importance of delivering a watertight UK Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM), levelling the carbon costs with imports from outside the EU and preventing decarbonization by deindustrialization.
Linking the two schemes will give UK cement and lime producers access to a larger, more liquid carbon market, bringing the kind of stability needed to promote investment confidence.
For sectors such as cement, wider competitiveness challenges also remain. For example, the Office for National Statistics has released data on the impact of energy prices on UK businesses, highlighting that UK industrial energy prices are some of the highest among international peers. This is one of the reasons why total UK production by energy-intensive industries, including cement and lime, has fallen by one third since 2021.
Dr Diana Casey, the MPA’s executive director for energy and climate change, said: ‘We’ve been calling for linking UK and EU schemes for some time and the Government’s announcement is a step in the right direction.
‘However, the governance of the ETS is crucial to get right and it’s unclear how much of a say the UK will have in shaping the evolution of the emissions trading scheme and its interaction with the CBAM. We also can’t ignore the fact that wider barriers to the competitiveness of UK cement and lime manufacture remain.
‘While we welcome moves towards linking, it is important that this is followed up by bringing UK industrial electricity costs into line with competitor economies. It is also vital that the UK ensures its own CBAM is robust to ensure imports pay the same cost on carbon faced by domestic producers.’
