They include an update to the so-called benchmarks that determine how many free-of-charge permits a certain industrial sector receives and a proposal to “increase the firepower” of the Market Stability Reserve governing the ETS permit supply.
In what she described as the “medium term,” von der Leyen pointed to the review of the ETS scheduled for this summer, as well as a new “ETS investment booster” providing financial support to industry.
This booster, first reported by POLITICO on Thursday, will “have a budget of round about €30 billion, financed by 400 million ETS allowances,” she said. “The aim is to finance projects for decarbonization” under a first-come, first-served scheme with a focus on lower-income EU countries.
In their summit conclusions, leaders asked the Commission to conduct the ETS review “by July 2026 at the latest, to reduce the volatility of the carbon price and mitigate
its impact on electricity prices … while preserving the essential role of the ETS.”
Compared to previous drafts, the final conclusions also “invited” the Commission “to
work closely with Member States to design national temporary and targeted
measures” to rein in high energy prices.
This addition was seen as catering to countries such as Italy and Poland, which had cited their national circumstances — in particular, high reliance on fossil fuels in their power mix — as reasons for more substantial changes to the ETS, two diplomats said.
Asked specifically about a controversial Italian decree subsidizing power companies to make up for their ETS costs, von der Leyen said: “Because of different energy mix in different member states you cannot have one-size-fits-all” and vowed to “work closely with the Italian government on the Italian decree.”
In general, she said, Thursday’s summit was “positive for the ETS.” The bloc’s bedrock climate measure escaped demands for fundamental changes from leaders and was widely praised as a key lever for accelerating the bloc’s transition to cheaper clean energy.
Discussion about this post