European Roundtable on Climate Change
and Sustainable Transition
About ERCST
The European Roundtable on Climate Change and Sustainable Transition (ERCST) is an independent nonprofit organisation working on European and Global climate change policies.
Our Team
Our staff combines the experience of senior policy analysts with the enthusiasm and ideas of younger researchers to deliver high-quality outputs.
Events and roundtables
ERCST frequently organises events where policymakers and stakeholders can meet to discuss ongoing climate change policies and legislation.
Publications
ERCST regularly produces research, policy and discussion papers as inputs and outputs from roundtables it organises, creating innovative intellectual capital.
Showcase
Third article of the Marcu My Words series with Carbon Pulse
Carbon Pulse, 15 September 2020
The vision for the EU ETS in the 2030 framework - will it be up to the challenge?
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At a minimum, a vision to what the ETS role is beyond 2030 needs to be provided, as it moves into “mid-life”. It is not young anymore.
A second requirement is that a vision is needed on how it will help industry decarbonise, without deindustrialising Europe, as it did for the power sector. The roles of the different tools, including the ETS, CBAM, consumption charges, contracts-for-difference, standards, etc. needs to be articulated, as well as how these tools will function together.
What we do not need is a review that has vague and general objectives – which only keeps everyone from objecting. The 55-60% target is clear, hard and challenging. The same level of clarity is needed in setting objectives and in defining what is needed in terms of changes to existing tools, and new tools if necessary.
Second article of the Marcu My Words series with Carbon Pulse
Carbon Pulse, 29 June 2020
Carbon Leakage and Competitiveness - different objectives different tools
In its feedback to the Inception Impact Assessment, ERCST, while not opposed to a BCA, has made clear its concerns about this approach: ERCST “would, in the course of the examination of how to address carbon leakage, urge a more open debate, with border carbon adjustments being one option. Other options, which may be complementary to BCA, should not be disregarded, including the creation of a framework that will lead to a market for low carbon products. Without such a market the tools available to the EU to implement the EU Green Deal will be incomplete”.
The recent report in Carbon Pulse of a statement signed by four countries, who, while also supportive of a BCA, question the total focus on BCA only, seems to vindicate this view. Germany, Belgium, Czechia and Hungary state in a recent letter that “an exchange of all possible mechanisms for protecting against carbon leakage among the member states is necessary in order to clarify the various open questions such as WTO compatibility or administrative feasibility”.
In conversation with Karsten Sach - (climate) priorities of the German 2020 EU council presidency
During this one-hour conversation, Karsten Sach, Director-General for European and International Climate Policy of the German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, and Nuclear Safety (BMU), shed light on Germany’s climate priorities for their term. (Event Page)
Virtual India-EU 'Town Hall' meeting on Border Carbon Adjustments
The European Roundtable on Climate Change and Sustainable Transition (ERCST) and the Council on Energy, Environment and Water (CEEW) organised a virtual India-EU “town hall meeting” on June 25, 2020 on the role that Border Carbon Adjustments (BCAs) may play in addressing asymmetry in climate ambition under the Paris Agreement, with special focus on the plans that the European Union has to examine this option.(Event Page)
High-Level webinar: 2030 climate target plan
As part of the ongoing series of discussions on the European Green Deal, the Climate Law and the 2030 climate targets, ERCST organised high-level webinar, which was an opportunity for participants to reflect on the process and implications of the review of the 2030 target, how it is articulated with the climate law discussion, and how the increase in ambition can be financed, taking into account the Recovery Package and the updated MFF proposal. (Event Page)
Carbon Fast Forward Online Conference
18 June 2020
How to survive and thrive in environmental markets
This virtual conference brings in-depth insights to navigate the vast uncertainty cast over environmental markets by the COVID-19 pandemic as the ongoing virus outbreak is causing significant shifts in carbon and wider markets. Leading analysts, government representatives and industry leaders will speak on how the global recovery is taking shape and what this means the EU ETS and other aspects of the European Green deal, the CORSIA aviation offsetting mechanism and corporate attitudes to tackling climate change. ERCST's Executive Director, Andrei Marcu, will join the panel.
First article of the Marcu My Words series with Carbon Pulse
Carbon Pulse, 4 May 2020
Europe's Climate Law - Locking in the Future?
The proposed Climate Law must not become an irreversible fait accompli. It has to be reinvented, time and again, and find ongoing support through continuous societal debate. The lack of vigorous societal debate on a proposal that is intended to reshape how Europeans work and live raises important questions about the political process leading up to this historical outcome. (...) With its sweeping scope and ambitious objectives, the Climate Law will recalibrate the parameters of economic activity across the continent. In particular, it will dramatically narrow the options available to member states when they decide on how to meet their current and future energy demand.
The intergenerational lock-in effects demand that we include a process for the periodic evaluation and review not only of our progress towards the objectives of the Climate Law, but also for those objectives themselves and their underlying assumptions. Just as the societal consensus on the appropriate response to climate change has continuously evolved in the past, we should expect it to continue doing so in the future. (...) At the very least, therefore, the architects of the Climate Law would be well-advised to seek consensus in the Council and incorporate a tangible, transparent process of continuous engagement with European civil society.
2020 State of the EU ETS Report
The yearly State of the EU ETS Report aims to be an independent contribution to the policy debate, which is needed to ensure that the EU ETS is “fit for purpose.”
It is intended as a “snapshot”, providing policymakers and stakeholders with an overview of how the EU ETS is doing by April of each year, based on previous year data.
This report is jointly produced by ERCST, BloombergNEF, the Wegener Center and Ecoact