The European Commission has approved Greece’s €4.77 billion Social Climate Plan, funded largely by the EU's Social Climate Fund alongside national contributions. Running from 2026 to 2032, the initiative is designed to shield vulnerable households, transport users, and micro-enterprises from the financial impacts of the EU’s upcoming Emissions Trading System (ETS 2), which will price carbon emissions from road transport and buildings.
The introduction of ETS 2 represents a major structural shift in European environmental policy, extending carbon pricing directly into the logistics and heating sectors. While Greece is using its allocation to support energy efficiency upgrades and clean transport integration, the underlying mechanism—putting a price on transport fuel emissions—will inevitably drive up freight and operational costs across the European continent. For any business moving goods through or within the EU, transport carbon accounting is about to transition from a voluntary metric to a direct financial liability.
For UK waste exporters and Turkish plastics recyclers, this development signals a tightening of carbon-related overheads. As transport costs rise under ETS 2, the logistics of shipping plastic waste from the UK to mainland Europe, or exporting recycled polymers from Türkiye into the EU, will face inflationary pressures. Recyclers must prepare for stricter Scope 3 emissions reporting and factor rising transport fuel surcharges into their long-term supply chain contracts.
As a practical takeaway, UK and Turkish trading partners should audit their logistics networks now to identify carbon-heavy transport routes. Transitioning to intermodal freight or partnering with logistics providers utilising low-emission fleets will be critical to mitigating the looming cost increases associated with the expansion of the EU ETS.
