On 19 May, the Cleantech Friendship Group welcomed the Commissioner for Climate, Net Zero and Clean Growth Wopke Hoekstra at the Parliament in Strasbourg for a timely discussion on how to strengthen tools such as carbon pricing and the Innovation Fund in the current geopolitical and economic context.

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Carbon pricing through the ETS remains the most important driver of the cleantech business case in Europe, as it creates predictability, drives emissions reductions in a cost-efficient manner and generates public revenues.

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However, with the war in the Middle East sending shockwaves through global energy markets, a pushback from a few Member States on the EU Emissions Trading System trajectory has been prompted. Discussions around price volatility, industrial competitiveness, European electricity markets and the effective use of ETS revenues through the Innovation Fund are high on the political agenda.

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The discussion ended with a clear takeaway: Europe still has an opportunity to become a leader in clean technologies. But facing fierce competition, this needs to be driven jointly at EU and Member States level. Policymakers now have to double down on creating the right instruments to ensure that public revenues go to European industry, accelerating the cleantech transition as a pathway to competitiveness, economic and energy security.

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This event brought together Members of the Cleantech Friendship Group Lídia Pereira, Thomas Pellerin-Carlin, Pascal Canfin, Niels Flemming Hansen, Nicolás González Casares, Bruno Tobback, Annalisa Corrado and Michael Bloss with cleantech leaders Anders Egelrud from Stockholm Exergi, Mark Meldrum from Rondo Energy, Pieter-Jan Mermans from Junction Growth Investors and Niklas Wass from Stegra.

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