Publications

Climate negotiations are taking place next week in Bonn, with finance once again high on the agenda. COP 29 ended last year with a New Collective Quantified Goal (NCQG) –revised climate finance target to replace the USD 100 billion goal. The NCQG decision put forward a commitment by developed countries to lead in providing USD 300 billion per year by 2035 for developing countries, as well as a proposal to work on a roadmap to scale up climate finance for developing countries to reach a level closer to the estimated needs –the ‘Baku to Belem Roadmap to 1.3T’ (USD 1.3 trillion). The latter must be delivered at the end of the year at COP 30, and strong efforts are being put in the task by the Brazilian Presidency.

This 2025 edition of the Global Carbon Accounts presents a landscape of carbon pricing instruments through the lens of their current and potential contribution to scale up climate and development finance. Several jurisdictions are already using carbon revenues to support a range of policy objectives, including decarbonization efforts and support for economic actors most affected by the transition. Yet there is still potential for them to further contribute to fill the gap.

In a challenging geo-political context, Europe has a window of opportunity to lead on both climate action and industrial competitiveness. As Mario Draghi highlighted in his report last year, this can only happen if decarbonisation ambitions are backed by real investment - and there is an urgent need to boost those investment. The European Commission followed suit and pledged to be an “Investment Commission,” while reaffirming its commitment to implement the 2030 emission reduction targets and to stay to course on the longer-term targets.

With the second edition of our State of Europe’s Climate Investment report, we take stock of the development in investments supporting the climate transition in the EU27. The report assesses the real-economy annual investments needed to meet the 2030 targets set out in the Green Deal and Net Zero Industry Act for the energy, buildings, transport and clean tech manufacturing sectors. We track the actual investments in those sectors in the EU economy, highlight the deficits and analyse challenges to mobilise investments.

With Member States meeting this week to discuss the progress and future of EU R&I funding at the Competitiveness Council a group of civil society, research and cleantech organisations, including I4CE, have today issued an open letter urging EU policymakers to put clean technology research and innovation (R&I) at the centre of the bloc’s long-term […]

Integrating climate indicators into variable remuneration is a burning issue. Although it was removed at the last minute from negotiations on the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD), the proposal is still very much alive in the policy debate . While the topic is becoming increasingly central to remuneration in large companies, it still appears to be a taboo within the banking sector. This requirement was already included in the European Central Bank's supervisory guidelines as early as 2020, yet it appears to have been largely neglected by banks.

We are witnessing a withdrawal of commitments to climate action. In the US, President Donald Trump does not hide his hostility to what he calls the ‘climate hoax’. In Europe and in France, new narratives around competitiveness, strategic autonomy and security are gaining ground, reflecting a new political reality. If there is still a broad consensus on the long-term objective of climate neutrality, how to get there is increasingly challenged, generating uncertainty. The scarcity of fiscal resources impacts the willingness to embark on the green transition.

This week, the EU launched the policy package that will define its new mandate – the Clean Industrial Deal. Pitched as “a transformational business plan” linking Europe’s climate and competitiveness goals, the Deal is Europe’s answer to the alarm raised by the Draghi report last year.

In the face of geopolitical shifts, not least those driven by the second Trump administration, the EU needs to secure its own green industrial base and foster new alliances. The European Commission’ proposal for a Clean Industrial Deal, central to its new competitiveness agenda, needs to spell out how Europe will create the enabling conditions […]

While several North American banks exit the voluntary NZBA (Net Zero Banking Alliance), European banks must bolster their climate risk frameworks. The European Banking Authority’s (EBA) recently published guidelines on ESG risk management offer a beacon of hope amidst the turmoil that currently surrounds the EU’s sustainable finance regulations. These guidelines are encouraging in both substance and form, reflecting prudential supervisors’ commitment to aligning the banking sector with the bloc’s climate and sustainability goals.

The EU Competitiveness Compass has made connecting decarbonisation and competitiveness a “strategic imperative” for Europe. This will be delivered by the all-important Clean Industrial Deal – the flagship policy package on which this new Commission hopes to upgrade Europe’s industrial base and tackle the climate crisis simultaneously.

As Donald Trump kicks off another presidential mandate in the US, there is no turning away from the EU’s major challenges of competitiveness, energy security and decarbonising the economy. With a new European Commission in place since December 2024, the roll out of initiatives addressing those challenges can begin. Whilst a lot of focus goes […]

Methodologies for target-setting and climate alignment assessment: Current status and future prospects for taking further account of nature and resilience. Economic players must face climate change and sustainability issues by transforming economic models, while strengthening their competitiveness and resilience.

Sectoral climate change mitigation scenarios for strategy development and alignment assessment by economic players: Current status and future prospects for taking further account of nature and resilience All sectors face growing pressures to transform their business models in response to multiple challenges (sustainability issues, technological supremacy, control over natural resources, etc.), while strengthening their competitiveness […]

Translating innovation into world-leading industries is critical, and FP10, the EU’s next flagship R&D funding programme after Horizon Europe concludes, offers a chance to bridge this gap. The Green Deal era saw Europe embrace 'Cleantech 2.0', with record investments and new projects. Yet 2024 has brought a reckoning. Slowing demand in sectors like heat pumps and electric cars, Chinese industrial overcapacity, and attractive subsidies in the US and Canada have left European cleantech struggling to compete. Closures, layoffs, and stalled projects - including the high-profile collapse of Swedish battery maker Northvolt - have shaken the sector. The EU’s Net Zero Industry Act and the upcoming Clean Industrial Deal aim to support cleantech manufacturing, but catching up isn’t enough. To lead globally, the EU must focus on the next wave, including new battery chemistries and next-gen renewables - 'Cleantech 3.0.'

As the European economy decarbonizes, economic assets across sectors are at risk of stranding or repricing from transition pressures. Yet private financial institutions, particularly banks, often narrowly focus on fossil fuel credit losses using historical data, underestimating broader ‘whole of economy’ stranding risks. Risk mitigation in the form of prudential capital buffers and loss provisions […]

To tackle the challenges of competitiveness and well-being of future generations, Europe needs to accelerate the climate transition. This will require sizable investment, both public and private. National governments must thus embrace and the EU must facilitate investments in climate transition. As the next European Commission prepares to take office, the challenges facing the College are stark. The recent report by Mario Draghi makes clear that there is an urgent need to invest in European competitiveness and innovation, while accelerating the decarbonization of the continent's economy, to avoid a “slow agony of decline” for the block.

The implementation of the new banking package (or Capital Requirements Directive package) that adopts the final parts of the international Basel 3 financial regulation is underway in the European Union. The European Banking Authority (EBA) along with the other European Supervisory Authorities (ESAs) is mandated to develop technical standards that provide the framework to help financial institutions comply with the new regulatory rules. Key among these standards is the novel guidance on ESG risks which is expected to be finalised by the EBA in the coming months. This is an opportune moment to address weaknesses in banks’ risk management practices, particularly regarding the underestimation of stranded asset risks, a missing angle in current policy debates.  

The European Commission is due to deliver a Vision for Agriculture and Food, within the first 100 days of its new mandate. Feeding into this work, the Strategic Dialogue on the Future of Agriculture (SDFA) published its report “A shared prospect for farming and food in Europe" in September. The spending under the Common Agriculture Policy (CAP) and its alignment with the climate goals agreed at the EU level will be central to the next steps.  

The Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) will audition the European Commissioner-designates in early November. The hearings are a crucial moment to seek commitment from the EU’s next executive team on the priorities for the coming five years and how they will delivered – including on the urgent issue of investment in the climate transition.