Lost opportunity of carbon market reform
On 13 December 2022, the European Commission, Council and Parliament reached a provisional agreement on the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism that will partly replace the free...
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...
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...
Spend Smarter: A bit of advice on climate innovation financing
Report | Spend Smarter: A bit of advice on climate innovation financing Download the report Currently, most EU-managed climate innovation subsidies go to innovation (through the...
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...
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...
Precursors: the products that will eat away at the CBAM’s effectiveness
The proposed Cross-Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) will charge a fee based on the carbon content of some industrial products imported into the EU (listed in Annex I of 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...
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…
European Scrap Steel Floats Away Under Carbon Market Incentives
According to Shipbreaking Platform, a Brussels-based NGO campaigning for the environmental and human rights issues linked to shipbreaking practices, in 2021 alone, 583...
RePowerEU financing plan shows how market makes decarbonisation harder
Read Sandbag’s feedback to RePowerEU on the European Commission’s website. We welcome immediate action to reduce Europe’s dependency on Russian fossil fuels in the face of its...
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…
Starting from scrap : The key role of circular steel in achieving climate goals
Report | Starting from scrap The key role of circular steel in achieving climate goals. This report aims at highlighting the role circularity can have in the fast...
Preventing double counting: Sandbag challenges methodology on green hydrogen (RFNBO).
Sandbag welcomes the opportunity offered by the European Commission to provide feedback on the draft Delegated Act defining a method for assessing greenhouse gas emission savings...
RePowerEU: Fiddling with the Carbon Market puts the Climate at Risk
[See new analysis with EC, EP and Council proposals] The European Commission’s plan to raise revenues from the Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) increases the risk to exceed the...