An analysis of the European Industrial Carbon Management Strategy consultation: Who makes the normative decisions?

Abstract

Establishing a framework for carbon management in Europe relies on collaboration between diverse actors. The European Industrial Carbon Management Strategy (the Strategy) is going through its last phase. As announced by the European Commission, the first quartile of 2024 will witness the deliberation of the Strategy. In the summer of 2023, a public consultation, and a call for evidence on the Strategy provided valuable stakeholder perspectives on the challenges and possible solutions for carbon management in Europe. This paper presents an analysis of these stakeholder perspectives and what input they give of the problems and solutions to carbon management. All submissions (n = 205) to the call for evidence were synthesised using qualitative system dynamics modelling. We found two dominant approaches to carbon management, a market-driven approach and a society-driven approach. Aligning carbon management within broader decarbonisation and fostering collaboration, requires a society-driven approach. A market-driven approach on the other hand provides high financial incentives. Our analysis suggests a conflict between a market-driven approach and collaboration, as a purely market-driven approach worsens the barriers to a collaborative approach, such as power and resource imbalance and a lack of facilitative leadership. Therefore, a careful balance between the two is required. This leads to several policy insights presented at the beginning of this paper.