The European electricity industry’s sector association is calling for EU policymakers to ensure a predictable, meaningful and sustainable carbon price amongst never-before-seen industry struggles.
The trade body, called Eurelectric, says it is an essential move to provide a strong investment signal for decarbonisation and electrification. Europe faces rising electricity demand, ageing grid infrastructure and growing pressure to electrify everything possible.
The European Commission estimates that hundreds of billions of euros will be needed to expand and modernise electricity networks by 2040, while Eurelectric has warned of an annual clean energy investment gap of up to €500 billion. (£425bn)
Kristian Ruby, Secretary General of Eurelectric said: “Thanks to the Emissions Trading System, the power sector has driven 75% of the emissions reductions across EU ETS sectors. More importantly, it has provided the right signals to unlock investment in clean technologies – a necessary step if Europe is to remain competitive on the global stage.”
Europe’s power sector contributes approximately €220 billion (£187bn) annually to EU GDP and is expected to invest more than €5 trillion (£4.2tn) by 2050 in generation capacity and infrastructure to deliver a decarbonised energy system across the Union.
Eurelectric therefore argues that Europe should strengthen the ETS, rather than scale back its ambition.
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