On February 13th, the European Commission released two pieces of legislation to provide criteria defining renewable hydrogen products. The so-called Delegated Acts matter because they set out how to comply with other regulations under review which will force ships,...
Category: Reports and policy briefs
Mind the scrap: ignoring embedded emissions puts the CBAM at risk
Sandbag’s submission to DG TAXUD’s Informal Expert Group on the Analytical Methods for the Monitoring, Reporting, Quantification and Verification of Embedded Emissions in Goods under the Scrope of the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM). According to notes...
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 allocation of emissions permits to polluters covered by its carbon market. This marks the...
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 Fund). The EU’s Innovation Fund, launched in 2020, is one of the world’s...
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 regulation), but that may not be applicable to all the embedded emissions of these products....
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 ocean-going commercial ships and floating offshore units with a total of 14 million gross...
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 aggression against Ukraine. However, the European Commission’s proposal reflects the...
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 decarbonization of the steel sector. How can European industrial and climate policy accelerate this...
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 for certain fuels. However, we are concerned that, despite the commendable intention to...
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 market’s emission limit. On May 18th the European Commission announced a plan to use Europe’s...