Comment Central: UK political comment, opinion and analysis

The installations covered by the EU Emissions Trading Scheme emitted 1,001 million tonnes of CO2 in 2024, half their 2005 level. A billion tonnes a year, gone. That number alone proves nothing about the policy. European industry has been reshaped by cheap competition from Asia, the financial crisis, the long shift towards services, and two energy price shocks. Some of that decline would have happened without a carbon market. The question that matters for anyone voting on the scheme's future is how much.