Europe's most effective method of cutting dangerous planet-heating gases risks being weakened after the European Commission proposed an overhaul of its flagship carbon market, critics have said. This was reported by Qazaqyia.kz citing The Guardian.

In a long-awaited review of the European Union emissions trading system (ETS), the European Commission proposed giving companies a less demanding and cheaper pathway to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

The review of the ETS – widely seen as Europe's most effective policy for reducing planet-heating emissions – follows deadly wildfires in Spain and extreme heatwaves across the continent. Western Europe endured its hottest June ever, with record-breaking temperatures scientists said would be "virtually impossible" without climate breakdown.

The review was needed to bring the ETS in line with Europe's target to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 90% by 2040, on the way to freeing its economy from fossil fuels by the middle of the century.

But the EU executive has also been under pressure from 10 EU member states that argue the ETS contributes to higher energy costs and damages Europe's competitiveness.

In response to those concerns, some heavy industries will benefit from free pollution permits for longer, while the number of permits in circulation will be reduced more slowly, also giving companies more leeway.

Since 2005, the EU's biggest polluters have been required to buy permits to pollute, creating an incentive to invest in cleaner energy generation and manufacturing. The ETS, which was later extended to intra-EU aviation and shipping, is credited with reducing planet-heating emissions by 47% by 2023 compared with 2005 levels.

Under the latest proposals, the ETS would be extended to cover municipal waste, with the aim of increasing recycling and reducing incineration.

The commission also wants to extend the ETS to flights within a 5,000km radius of a central point in Europe, a distance that would affect airlines flying to north Africa and the Middle East but not China or the US, thus avoiding a new conflict with the Trump administration.

The ETS would also apply to private jets for the first time, ending a privilege for the richest passengers long seen as unfair.

The EU climate commissioner, Wopke Hoekstra, told reporters the ETS was "a phenomenal asset" and Europe would have consumed an extra 100bn cubic metres more gas without the scheme, "making us even more vulnerable" to energy market volatility.

But "the great design" had weaknesses, he said, arguing that key European industries faced unfair competition from non-European rivals that use "heavy state subsidies" and "dubious labour conditions" that even a new carbon-border levy did not fully address.

Some companies, Hoekstra said, had opted to move operations abroad, rather than invest in clean production in Europe. "This can no longer stand," he said.

Michael Bloss, a German Green MEP, accused the commission of giving industries "a licence to pollute for even longer and at a lower cost".

He said: "Weakening the emissions trading scheme harms companies that create jobs and growth through climate-friendly production. Those who have invested in the industries and the jobs of the future will be penalised."

Camille Maury, a senior policy officer on industrial decarbonisation at the wildlife conservation charity WWF's European policy office, said the commission's proposal "jeopardises a predictable and effective price on pollution that businesses and investors need to invest in clean technologies".

The ETS worked, Maury said, "because its core elements reinforce one another: a declining cap on emissions, a meaningful price on pollution and revenues that support the clean transition". She added: "Just like a Jenga tower, when you start removing building blocks, it destabilises the whole structure."

The commission has been under heavy pressure to weaken the ETS as member states grapple with the latest energy shock triggered by the Iran war, exposing Europe's dependency on imported fossil fuels.

Earlier this year, Italy led the charge to scrap the ETS and is among 10 member states that recently called for "pragmatic" reforms, claiming the current system will push industries out of Europe.

In response, seven member states – including the Nordic countries, Spain and the Netherlands, the frontrunners in clean power – last week warned against watering down the ETS because it "risks undue pressure" on efforts to cut emissions.

Under the ETS, companies receive free allowances, but the number declines over time.