Executive summary 12 European countries have committed to closing down coal-fired power plants over the coming years. In order to do their part in limiting the global temperature rise to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels, all EU countries will have to follow on this path and phase out coal by 20301. While this is an urgent…
Executive summary With total greenhouse gas emissions of 708 million tonnes per year, the resource and energy-intensive industry is the third-largest climate polluter in Europe. The cement, chemical, and steel sectors alone are responsible for almost 60% of these emissions. Industrial emissions are regulated under the EU Emission Trading System (ETS), but the numerous exemptions…
How the EU Budget can help Member States in reducing emissions Executive Summary The Commission presented proposals relating to the post-2020 EU budget in May and June 2018. The next EU budget spans from 2021 to 2027 and the revenue streams, as well as where the money will be invested, are both topics of discussion…
Introduction In the coming time, Member States will need to develop National Energy and Climate Plans (NECPs), in collaboration with stakeholders, to show how they plan to meet their 2030 climate and energy commitments. This provides an opportunity for civil society to help shape the key national decisions for the next decade and to ensure that they…
Europe’s energy-intensive industries need an urgent transformation in order to dramatically reduce their emissions in line with the Paris climate goals. This is far from the reality: EU industrial emissions rose by 2% in 2017 and projections show that they are not expected to decline up to 2030. One of the more challenging elements of…
CONTRIBUTION OF THE GLOBAL SHIPPING SECTOR TO ACHIEVING PARIS AGREEMENT CLIMATE OBJECTIVES After a long period of operating exclusively under sail, the shipping industry transitioned first to coal-fired steam engines, and then to fossil-fuelled internal combustion engines. Today the fleet almost exclusively uses large four and two-stroke marine diesel engines, fuelled for the most part…
This feedback was submitted to the European Commission, expressing Carbon Market Watch’s views on the inclusion of sectors on the carbon leakage list of the EU Emissions Trading System (EU ETS). The carbon leakage list identifies all sectors which are deemed by the Commission to be at risk of leakage, i.e. the geographical displacement of…
Executive summary In autumn 2017, the EU Member States and the European Parliament agreed on the revision of the EU Emissions Trading System (EU ETS), setting out the scheme’s rules for the 2021-2030 period. The EU ETS aims to put a price on carbon by requiring installations across Europe to surrender allowances reflecting their level…
The assessment of the carbon leakage list for the post-2020 period will need to be informed by the performance of the carbon leakage provisions to date. So far, the excessively generous handout of free permits has resulted in over 25 billion euros windfall profits (e.g. the polluter has been paid, rather than having been made…
FOREWORD 2016 was a year that shook the world and the European Union in particular. The new hope for multilateral climate cooperation under the 2015 Paris agreement received a blow with the election of a climate denier to the White House. The European Union, as an ongoing project for peace and prosperity, was shaken by a Brexit referendum…
Carbon pricing 
International transport 
Climate governance 
Fair climate action