Strengthen the carbon market, scale clean firm power, get clean projects built: CATF’s blueprint for the EU’s July climate and energy package 

“The EU ETS has been a central tool to incentivise emissions cuts and reward companies that invest early,” said Alessia Virone, Government Affairs Director for Europe at CATF. “This revision should be used to strengthen, not weaken, that baseline incentive while maintaining the stability and investment certainty businesses depend on. But Europe cannot ask its carbon market to solve every industrial and economic challenge — the ETS must be complemented by ambitious policies that unlock infrastructure, investment and deployment.” 

“This proposal is a major milestone for carbon removals: a publicly controlled purchasing programme would give the sector the strongest demand signal it has ever had. Now the discipline has to match the ambition: procurement that starts years before the tonnes are due, and a clear legal rule that room to emit only exists where real removals stand behind it. But the proposal is not without risks — it creates emission space today against removals and international credits that may not arrive. The EU should promise carefully, procure early, and not build Europe’s climate target on tonnes that might not come,” said Codie Rossi, Senior Policy Manager for Carbon Management at CATF. 

“The ETS is one of Europe’s most important levers for unlocking investment in aviation decarbonisation,” said Lucía M. Maroto, Transportation Decarbonisation Manager for Europe at CATF. “Better use of its revenues and stronger, longer-term support for low-carbon fuels can move projects forward. The Commission proposal is right to recognise the impact of contrails and takes first steps towards incentivising targeted contrail mitigation. With a small share of flights driving the vast majority of contrail warming, this is a chance to act on a large climate impact at low cost.” 

“The Commission has taken an important step by bringing in waste incineration, and explicitly recognising that doing so without addressing emissions from landfills could be counterproductive,” said Brandon Locke, Associate Director for Global Methane Policy at CATF. “While the proposal considers measures to enhance tracking of landfill emissions, it stops short of including an equivalent price on landfill methane, and leaves this to a future review. Further monitoring is a positive step to identify the problem, but a clear price signal is needed to solve it. The upcoming legislative procedure needs to close this gap, bringing in pricing to drive down both CO₂ and methane emissions in the waste sector.” 

“The Investment Booster is a welcome first step, but the IDB’s real test will be deployment — turning Europe’s pipeline of announced projects into facilities that are built and operating,” said Adriana Matić, Associate for Carbon Management in Europe at CATF. “That means advancing three enablers together — project readiness, revenue certainty and enabling infrastructure — through a coordinated system: development support, competitive carbon contracts for difference and dedicated infrastructure funding. Success must be measured by projects that reach operation, not by an expanding list of awards.” 

“The Action Plan gives Europe a clearer direction for electrification, but it misses an opportunity to make clean power more accessible to industrial consumers,” said Lea Romm, Associate for European Electricity Policy at CATF. “Tripartite contracts — with a state-backed intermediary between clean suppliers and industrial buyers — could reduce risk, provide predictable prices and unlock investment. They should become part of the EU’s broader electrification framework.”

“Europe has the scientific expertise, industrial capabilities and geothermal resources to lead this sector, and today’s recognition is a notable step forward,” said Jenna Hill, Superhot Rock Geothermal Innovation Manager at CATF. “That being said, the EU needs to put forth an ambitious, dedicated strategy that supports innovation and accelerates responsible deployment for geothermal. In the interim, it is up to the Member States to develop strategies that unlock geothermal for around-the-clock clean power and heat— using a secure domestic resource available beneath our feet.”