Blog posts
What’s new in the ETS trilogues? Benchmark revisions (or not!)
This weekend, the European Commission, Parliament, and Council are set to finalise an important reform of the EU’s carbon market in the final round of their “trilogue” (trilogues are informal tripartite meetings on legislative proposals between representatives of the...
An export solution for a faster CBAM phase-in
A Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) has been proposed by the European Commission as an alternative to the measures under the EU ETS that currently address the risk of carbon-intensive industries relocating to countries with no carbon pricing (carbon leakage),...
Innovation’s Black Friday
Earlier this month, the IF’s third large-scale call was announced, with a bumper budget of €3bn. The EU’s Innovation Fund, launched in 2020, is one of the world’s largest programmes funding innovative low-carbon technologies. The fund can cover up to 60% of a...
ETS and CBAM should not discourage circularity
The reform of the European carbon market (ETS, for Emissions Trading Scheme) and related Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) will define the future of the circular economy for years to come. These two files are in the final step of the legislative procedure, the...
Our concerns regarding ETS and CBAM legislative texts
We have strong concerns regarding the legislative texts on the revision of the Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) and the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM), presented by the European Commission, Council and Parliament. All three bodies have proposed to extend the...
2nd ETS trilogue: EU institutions agreed on almost nothing, except on perpetuating free allocation for the steel giants
The second ETS trilogue took place last week on October 11th. Tabled proposals on benchmarks regarding the steel…
Starting from scrap: transition to low-carbon steel can go faster with increased use of second-hand metal
New research by Sandbag indicates that a better use of end of life steel objects would help to speed up the reduction of emissions from the sector in Europe…
Reform, not a patch, will curb carbon price volatility
As energy prices hit record levels, the European Union’s carbon emissions permits – which hit €100 on futures markets in February – have been accused of making electricity too expensive, and although natural gas has a much larger responsibility, the carbon price also...