BASF ups internal carbon price to €365 amid campaign against EU ETS

Chemicals firm BASF has become one of the loudest critics of Europe’s carbon markets in recent times. 

Its CEO, Markus Kamieth, accused the Emissions Trading System, or EU ETS, of being “obsolete” last month, accusing it of putting the region’s businesses at a “significant competitive disadvantage” against international counterparts.      

Just weeks earlier Kamieth became president of Cefic, the trade association for the chemicals industry, and architect of a letter calling on EU leaders to reduce the cost of carbon for European businesses.  

The letter claimed to be sent “on behalf of signatories of the Antwerp Declaration”, referring to a 2024 position statement about EU industrial policy agreed by more than 1,300 companies.

But Cefic came under fire last week, after Politico revealed that some of those firms had not endorsed the trade association’s most recent letter.  

It has now clarified that, rather than being supported by all the companies, the petition simply “reflects the many opinions” it heard during consultations.  

As well as playing a key role in Cefic, BASF is also one of the founding supporters of Carbon Measures, an organisation launched last year to campaign for new ways of emissions accounting.

But despite its apparent desire to lower the regulated cost of carbon, the firm continues to crank up its internal carbon price. 

The company’s latest sustainability report revealed that it now puts it at €365 per metric tonne – up €25 since last year. 

That price, which informs BASF’s investment decisions, is one of the highest in the world.   

Other examples of chemicals firms that employ internal carbon prices include Austria’s Lenzing, which last year put the figure at €75 per tonne, and Evonik, which assumes a tonne will cost €130 through the ETS by 2030 (and €37 outside Europe). 

Details of how BASF arrived at its carbon price are sketchy, but it builds on three climate scenarios, including a pathway in which key markets achieve their original net-zero goals under the Paris Agreement.   

“The fundamental drivers for the scenarios are influential geopolitical actors and their various interests, different societal preferences and, building on these, climate and economic policy objectives,” it stated. 

“The result is a price per metric ton of CO2 equivalents of up to €365, depending on the year.”

BASF had not responded to a request for comment at the time of publication.