The Government’s proposal to link the UK and EU Emissions Trading Schemes (ETS) announced on 19th 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. It 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 decarbonisation by deindustrialisation.
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 like 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, 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.”
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Notes for editors
*ONS “The impact of higher energy costs on UK businesses: 2021 to 2024”, 19 May 2025
https://www.ons.gov.uk/economy/economicoutputandproductivity/output/articles/
theimpactofhigherenergycostsonukbusinesses/2021to2024
About the Mineral Products Association:
The Mineral Products Association (MPA) is the trade association for the aggregates, asphalt, cement, concrete, dimension stone, lime, mortar and industrial sand industries. MPA is the sectoral voice for mineral products, covering 100% of UK cement and lime production, 90% of GB aggregates production, 95% of asphalt and over 60% of ready-mixed concrete and precast concrete production. In 2021, the industry supplied £22 billion worth of materials and services to the Economy. It is also the largest supplier to the construction industry, which had annual output valued at £178 billion. Industry production represents the largest flow of materials in the UK economy and is also one of the largest manufacturing sectors.
For media enquiries, contact Robert McIlveen at: Robert.McIlveen@mineralproducts.org