The EUR 3 billion ETS2 Frontloading Facility is a welcome development. However, without explicit prioritisation, commercial road transport risks being left without the predictable support it needs to decarbonise.
The European Investment Bank and the European Commission announced this week an agreement on a EUR 3 billion ETS2 Frontloading Facility to accelerate investments in the sectors covered by the new emissions trading system for buildings and road transport.
The facility will allow funds to be allocated to Member States that have transposed ETS2, enabling them to pre-finance measures ahead of 2028, when revenues from the system are expected to start being collected.
At this stage, however, the announcement does not include the actual European Investment Bank facility set-up or guidance to Member States. As a result, it remains unclear how the mechanism will function in practice. While the communication broadly states that the facility will help ramp up clean investments in buildings and road transport, it only provides high-level examples for transport and no indication of how support will be targeted or prioritised.
IRU EU Director Raluca Marian said, “The EUR 3 billion ETS2 Frontloading Facility is a welcome development. But unless the European Commission and European Investment Bank set a clear direction on where financial support should flow, there is no guarantee that road transport operators will have effective access to the investment instruments linked to the system, with very divergent practices expected across Member States.” (....)