Publications
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...
Innovation’s Black Friday
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 project’s costs, mostly upfront with few strings attached. Earlier this month, the IF’s third...
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,...
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...
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...
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
In 2021, over 14 million gross tonnes of ships were dismantled, with a third owned by European firms and largely scrapped in South Asia. This practice exports high-quality scrap steel that could otherwise support low-carbon steelmaking in Europe. However, EU carbon market rules currently favour carbon-intensive blast furnaces over cleaner electric arc furnaces (EAFs) by allocating more free emissions allowances to the former. This distorts incentives, discouraging investment in greener technologies. Sandbag calls for a faster phase-out of free allowances and a more comprehensive CBAM to promote domestic recycling and decarbonisation.
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: 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 decarbonization of the steel sector. How can European industrial and climate policy accelerate this...
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