EU Commissioners-designate hearings: What to look out for
The European Parliament will soon hold confirmation hearings (4–12 November) for Commissioners-designate, assessing their visions for EU climate, energy, and industrial policies for the next five years. These hearings are a pivotal moment to clarify the EU’s approach on critical issues like carbon capture, clean hydrogen, methane mitigation, and industrial decarbonisation.
Clean Air Task Force (CATF) experts will provide commentary, in-depth analysis, and insights before, during, and after these hearings to unpack the implications for EU climate and competitiveness goals.
What to watch for
- Merging of climate and industrial policies: To bring about a prosperous, decarbonised future that the bloc aspires to, the EU climate, industrial, and economic policies will have to be aligned and mutually reinforcing. The promised ‘Clean Industrial Deal’ was announced as a key vehicle towards such future, so we’re eager to hear more details about its scope and design.
- Expanding the suite of climate solutions: President von der Leyen has committed to ‘technology neutrality’ in her political guidelines for the next European Commission. As different Member States and economic sectors will take different pathways to decarbonisation, we’ll be looking out for Commissioners’ commitments and actions to enable the deployment of technologies like carbon capture and storage, clean hydrogen, geothermal energy, and small modular reactors.
- Developing cutting-edge technologies: To fully decarbonise by 2050, we will also need new innovative technologies that are not yet available on the market. We hope potential new Commissioners will keep this in mind and consider actions to demonstrate, commercialise, and deploy promising clean technologies like fusion energy and superhot rock geothermal systems.
- Addressing methane emissions from all sources: Last term, the European Commission was instrumental in launching landmark initiatives like the Global Methane Pledge and passing a regulation to address methane emissions from the energy sector. We’d like to see continued commitment to reducing this potent greenhouse gas by rigorously enforcing these new measures and maintaining ambition as the focus shifts to the higher 2040 climate targets, which will necessitate mitigating emissions from agriculture.
What to watch for in each hearing
Commissioner for Energy and Housing – Dan Jørgensen (Nov. 5, 2:30-5:30 pm CET)
- Harnessing clean firm energy sources: Ensuring uninterrupted clean energy supply at affordable prices will require complementing renewable energy with clean firm energy sources. CATF emphasises the potential of small modular reactors, fusion energy, and innovative geothermal energy systems to contribute to the EU’s energy security and decarbonisation objectives. The new Commissioner will be hugely important in supporting the deployment of these technologies.
- Clean hydrogen deployment: Given recent calls to rethink the EU’s clean hydrogen strategy, we’ll be looking out for signs that the Commission intends to take the EU’s financial watchdog’s recommendations on board.
Commissioner for Climate, Net-Zero and Clean Growth – Wopke Hoekstra (Nov. 7, 9:00 am-12:00 pm CET)
- EU climate targets for 2040: In addition to further commitments to proposing a net 90% emissions reduction target for 2040, many stakeholders will be hoping for a robust target design – three separate targets for emissions reduction, land-based sequestration, and carbon removals with permanent storage.
- Carbon capture and storage: As Hoekstra will lead on the implementation of the Industrial Carbon Management Strategy, CATF will be looking out for his commitments to coordinate cross-border CO₂ infrastructure, ensure progress towards the EU carbon storage target, and guarantee open access to CO₂ infrastructure.
Executive Vice-President for Clean, Just and Competitive Transition – Teresa Ribera (Nov. 12, 6:30-9:30 pm CET)
- Competition and state aid: As innovative clean technologies often require public support in the early stages of their development, finding a balance between relaxing state aid rules for specific technologies while preserving EU cohesion will be a key challenge for Ribera’s post in the upcoming term.
Executive Vice-President for Prosperity and Industrial Strategy – Stéphane Séjourné (Nov. 12, 2:30-5:30 pm CET)
- European Competitiveness Fund: Séjourné will be responsible for developing the future European Competitiveness Fund. It will be interesting to see how he goes about crafting investment incentives for clean technologies in the context of the upcoming EU long-term budget negotiations.
CATF’s perspective
New European Commission agenda
Alessia Virone, Government Affairs Director, CATF: “The new Commission agenda mentioned many new policy initiatives which could support industrial decarbonisation. But we’re eager to see how Commissioners-designate plan to bring them to life and how competitiveness and sustainability will be balanced to ensure the Clean Industrial Deal is actually clean. ‘Technology neutrality’ must be more than a slogan – Europe needs the full range of tools and innovation to achieve its climate targets for 2030, 2040, and beyond.”
Small modular reactors
Malwina Qvist, Program Director, Nuclear Energy at CATF: “As the European Union looks for reliable clean energy to strengthen its economic resilience, technologies like small modular reactors are gaining attention. Innovative technologies are key to building a strong, low-carbon energy system that can meet Europe’s growing energy needs and enhance long-term energy security. The EU and interested member states must think through what strategic deployment of these technologies could look like and how to enable it.”
Méthane
Brandon Locke, Europe Policy Manager, Methane, CATF: “With Russian gas lingering in the back of everyone’s mind, it would be a missed opportunity if designated Commissioners don’t put methane emissions on centre stage – which in the energy sector are equal to over 70% of the EU’s annual natural gas consumption. Reducing these emissions across all sectors protects the climate, our energy security and our wallets, but we’re not moving fast enough. We need bold leadership, an action plan, and robust implementation. Nothing less will make the cut.”
Captage et stockage du carbone
Codie Rossi, Europe Policy Manager, Carbon Capture, CATF: “Carbon capture and storage is now on the EU’s agenda, but targets alone won’t make the necessary deployment a reality and keep our climate targets within reach. The Industrial Carbon Management Strategy lays out a path, but now it’s up to the next Commission to turn this vision into investment-ready, on-the-ground infrastructure. We’re running out of time to bridge the gap between ambition and implementation – this is where the real work begins.”
Clean hydrogen
Alex Carr, Europe Policy Manager, Zero-Carbon Fuels, CATF: “Designated Commissioners face an opportunity to hit the reset button on the EU’s hydrogen approach, evolving overly ambitious – and likely unachievable – existing goals into more realistic plans. To achieve this, the Commission must spearhead an EU clean hydrogen roadmap toward 2050, so that implementation of a sustainable clean hydrogen market is achievable in and across Member States.”
Contact presse
Julia Kislitsyna, responsable de la communication, Europe,[email protected],+49 151 16220453
À propos de Clean Air Task Force
Clean Air Task Force (CATF) is a global nonprofit organization working to safeguard against the worst impacts of climate change by catalyzing the rapid development and deployment of low-carbon energy and other climate-protecting technologies. With more than 25 years of internationally recognized expertise on climate policy and a fierce commitment to exploring all potential solutions, CATF is a pragmatic, non-ideological advocacy group with the bold ideas needed to address climate change. Visit cleanairtaskforce.org and follow @cleanaircatf
