On 31 July 2026, Commissioner Wopke Hoekstra, in a written answer to a parliamentary question, outlined the Commission's plans to unlock final investment decisions (FIDs) along the carbon capture, utilisation and storage (CCUS) value chain, confirming that a legislative proposal on CO2 markets and infrastructure will be adopted at the end of 2026. The proposal will include rules for developing an internal market for CO2, a step the Commission sees as essential to meeting the binding 2030 target of 50 million tonnes of CO2 injection capacity per year set under the Net-Zero Industry Act. Hoekstra acknowledged the coordination challenge that has stalled FIDs, noting that capture projects depend on transport and storage availability while storage developers need firm offtake commitments.
The answer came in response to a question from Renew Europe MEP Jeannette Baljeu, who had pressed the Commission on how it would ensure FIDs, address emitter liability during value chain disruptions, and use the upcoming Industrial Decarbonisation Bank to de-risk early projects. Hoekstra clarified that under the Emissions Trading System (ETS), liability for CO2 is assigned to each value chain actor, meaning emitters that capture CO2 bear the commercial risk if transport or storage services are unavailable. He argued that this risk is expected to diminish as a more diversified, competitive storage market develops. The Commissioner also highlighted that the Innovation Fund is already financially de-risking 60 Industrial Carbon Management projects with more than EUR 6 billion in committed grants covering both investment and operational expenditures for CO2 services. Support to CCUS projects is also being discussed in the context of the announced Industrial Decarbonisation Bank, which is expected to be operational in the second quarter of 2026.
While the answer provides a timeline for the CO2 markets proposal and points to existing financial instruments, it stops short of detailing concrete mechanisms for the Industrial Decarbonisation Bank or specific regulatory measures to guarantee FIDs. Baljeu had argued that the market cannot resolve the coordination challenge alone, and the Commission's response suggests a reliance on market development and existing funding rather than new binding obligations. The proposal, when adopted, will be a key test of whether the EU can translate its 50 Mt target into actual investment decisions across the capture, transport, and storage chain. Stakeholders, including industrial emitters, storage developers, and investors, will be watching for how the internal market rules allocate liability and whether the Bank provides sufficient de-risking to trigger early FIDs. The Commission's approach balances the need for regulatory certainty with a preference for market-based solutions, but the absence of new measures in this answer may leave some questions unresolved until the formal proposal is tabled.