Part 2 of why rejoining the EU by stealth – the ‘reset’ – is far worse than you could possibly imagine. 

Of all the most ridiculous reasons given by the UK Government for seeking to join the EU’s Emissions Trading Scheme under the spurious claim it will protect the UK’s exports, its outcome of adding higher taxes to fertiliser used by our farmers is the most glaring example.

Thanks to the devastating energy policies of past and present UK Governments Britain no longer makes ammonia – the key feedstock for most fertilisers. In the name of Net Zero the UK has added levies that have priced us out of markets at home and abroad. We have shipped manufacturing capacity and the jobs that went with it to other countries, killing our exports and making us more reliant on imports.

The switch from exporter to importer skews our trade figures and this is then blamed maliciously on Brexit – when it has been our own poor decision making to carry on with the Net Zero panacea. Now our Government wants to make the situation worse by matching the EU’s higher taxes on our ammonia imports that will simply add to the already high costs of making fertiliser and so increase the cost of living crisis.

In effect we have the blind following the blind – the UK’s patsy politicians following the Net Zero zealotry of the EU when we have the power to take control and reduce our levies so prices come down, home production can recover and jobs and economic growth be created.

The importance of ammonia

Most fertilisers are made from ammonia (NH₃), which is in turn made from natural gas as a feedstock, but the UK is no longer a major exporter of ammonia. Back in 2021, the UK exported 232,075 tonnes of ammonia, but in 2025 these exports had dropped 91.2 per cent to just 20,408 tonnes, of which just 14,000 tonnes went to EU countries.

At the same time, UK ammonia imports of just 29,075 tonnes in 2021 increased by 1,110 per cent to an astonishing 351,980 tonnes in 2025. The UK’s overzealous application of carbon taxes has not reduced its need for ammonia, but it killed our ability to produce it domestically.

When European gas prices spiked in 2022, CF Fertilisers closed its ammonia plant in Ince, Cheshire, and in 2023 its plant in Billingham, Teesside, ceased production. That was the UK’s last major ammonia production facility.

The UK itself has plentiful natural gas, but since the introduction of the windfall tax in 2022, and the limits placed on new well development on the UK side of the North Sea, UK gas production, ammonia production, and ammonia exports have all dropped – and imports have risen hugely.

Most of the UK’s ammonia imports come from the US, but they are not cheaper than UK-produced ammonia due to differences in ETS costs. The biggest price differential comes from natural gas prices and the UK’s additional Climate Change Levy and Carbon Price Support charges on the energy used to make ammonia. This is unnecessary triple UK taxation.

As shown in the table below, adding the EU’s Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) to imported ammonia and imported nitric acid – as Andy Burnham’s EU/UK “reset” will do – will increase the US import price of €427 per tonne by €143.63 (33 per cent) taking it to €570 per tonne. Our cheapest ammonia supplier that currently provides a third of our imports would become our second most expensive.

The CBAM would also add 10 to 14 per cent to the import prices of the UK’s smaller non-EU ammonia suppliers. And as non-EU ammonia would still be cheaper than that of any EU supplier, forcing the UK to add a CBAM tariff would simply drive up costs for all UK fertiliser producers and users – increasing the cost of the weekly shop.

The role of fertiliser

Although fertiliser production is emissions-intensive, it is also essential for food production. In the UK, fertiliser use typically increases arable crop yields by 30–50 per cent and grassland productivity by 40–60 per cent, compared to unfertilised systems. Without fertiliser, most soils cannot supply sufficient nitrogen, phosphate, and potash to sustain high yields, making fertiliser critical for both food security and livestock forage production.

In 2025, the UK produced around 1.2 to 1.3 million tonnes of mineral fertilisers annually, dominated by nitrogen-based (ammonia) products. Domestic production of phosphate and potash fertilisers has largely ceased, with the UK now reliant on imports.

Driven by plant closures, high energy costs, environmental regulation, and global market restructuring UK fertiliser output has halved, since 2000 and the product mix has shifted away from broad-spectrum fertilisers towards nitrogen-only and imported blends. Mimicking falls in production, the use of fertiliser in the UK has fallen by 19.3 per cent in the 10 years up to 2024.

UK ETS allowances, along with strict nitrogen-emissions regulations, have made domestic fertiliser production less competitive against imported fertiliser. Adding the EU’s higher Emissions Trading System (ETS) charge to domestic production or a CBAM on imported fertilisers makes it even more expensive than it needs to be driving up the cost of UK-produced foods.

It is inexplicable that the EU and the UK would consider increasing the cost of imported ammonia when neither of them still makes it efficiently, and it is so essential for agricultural industries.

Removing taxes would benefit Britain

The UK should be an efficient producer of ammonia, but instead we import it from the US, where gas prices are a third to a quarter of those in the UK. The reality is there’s no need to impose a CBAM on fertiliser – or ammonia used to make fertiliser – because there are no longer any UK producers to protect. Instead, the UK should look to the global markets to obtain the best prices until such time as we change domestic policies that prevent us producing our own ammonia and fertiliser from our own natural gas.

By removing all the additional energy levies we could lower the cost of an essential input for food production, strengthening food security and lowering prices of domestically produced food.

Sadly, Andy Burnham would rather accept EU laws and taxes than let our economy and agriculture be naturally fertile.