Europe just blinked.
Its flagship climate weapon — the world's strictest carbon market — is getting softer edges.
The EU ETS, born in 2005, forces polluters to pay for every tonne of CO2 they emit.
Carbon prices went from under €10 to nearly €80 a tonne.
That's an 8x jump.
Now Brussels is hitting pause on the squeeze.
The European Commission is proposing:
Translation: pay less, get more time, but prove you're actually decarbonising.
Since 2013, the ETS has generated €260 billion.
Free permits alone? Worth roughly €250 billion since the scheme began.
That's the size of the lever Brussels is now loosening.
Without this overhaul, the system would've run dry of permits by 2039 anyway.
Here's the twist — companies aren't even agreeing with each other.
BASF wants cheaper carbon, more free permits, less pain.
SSAB, the Swedish steelmaker that already bet big on low-carbon steel, wants prices to stay high.
Because a weaker carbon price makes their expensive green investment look foolish.
Governments are split the same way — Italy and Poland pushing for relief, Sweden and Denmark holding the line.
Brussels also wants to pull international flights up to 5,000 km into the system — hitting routes to Turkey and the Middle East.
US flights are exempt.
The American Chamber of Commerce is already warning of retaliation.
This isn't Europe abandoning climate ambition.
It's Europe realising that green rules only survive if the factories they regulate can survive too.
Negotiations run for about a year.
The real fight over how green Europe stays — starts now.
That's all for now!
