The cost of EU ETS allowances has multiplied tenfold since the system's creation.
EnvironmentEuropean Union
- Omissions
- No official source found publishes an explicit 'tenfold' comparison between the price at the ETS launch in 2005 and the price in 2025/2026; the multiple is derived by the speaker from a chosen baseline.
- The ratio is highly sensitive to the baseline: using the 2025 average of EUR 73.43-74.35 per tonne, a tenfold increase implies an initial price of about EUR 7/tonne, whereas any higher Phase I reference price yields a much smaller multiple (roughly three- to four-fold).
- Phase I (2005-2007) prices were highly volatile and, following over-allocation, fell towards zero in 2007 (A&O Shearman), so 'from its birth to today' can be measured from very different starting points.
- The comparison also ignores that the ETS price fell sharply in 2024 (about EUR 67 average, five-year low of EUR 52 in February 2024) and has fluctuated between roughly EUR 60 and EUR 80 in 2025-2026, so the 'today' end-point is itself a choice.
- The claim's other assertions (financial speculation, asymmetric pass-through to energy prices, no effect on global emissions) are separate empirical claims not addressed by price data.
- Sources found are published before the session date of 21 October 2026 and were therefore available to the MEP; the ICAP and Commission pages were consulted in their current (2026) version.