EU leaders have agreed to review the bloc's carbon market after Italy, Poland, Czech Republic and others argued that the Emissions Trading System raises energy costs and hurts industrial competitiveness. The European Commission will reassess ETS2, the planned carbon price on heating and transport fuels, along with safeguards for vulnerable households. The final statement did not include a requested delay to 2030, so the expansion is still on track for now. The review also targets the market stability reserve, the mechanism that pulls allowances from circulation to manage prices. Spain and the Nordic countries warned that weakening the ETS would undermine investment certainty for clean energy and industrial decarbonisation. The compromise keeps the timetable intact but opens the door to design changes. For anyone tracking carbon markets, the key is whether the review leads to tighter price caps, more generous free allowances, or changes to the reserve. The political pressure from Rome and Warsaw is not going away, and this is likely to resurface during the next energy price spike.
