Rising prices driven by ETS speculation, PM says

The prime minister has said speculative trading in CO2 emission rights (ETS)is one of the main factors driving up inflation.

Mateusz Morawiecki wrote on social media that the EU’s ETS trading system, which sets annual caps on greenhouse emissions by the member states, worked like an "EU climate tax".

"Rising prices are to a large degree the effect of ETS speculation, which function like an EU climate tax and, through gas energy and fuel prices, translate directly into inflation," Morawiecki wrote.

On December 9 the Polish Sejm (the lower house of parliament) passed a resolution appealing to the EU countries to suspend and reform the system. In the following week, Morawiecki reiterated the appeal at a European Council sitting.