WindEurope has called on the European Commission to keep a clear, predictable carbon price under the EU Emissions Trading System (ETS) and to channel ETS revenues into industrial electrification. The appeal comes ahead of the Commission’s ETS review and new Electrification Action Plan, both due on 17 July.
The trade body says the ETS generated around €43 billion in 2025, but only about 5% of reported revenues go to industrial decarbonisation. It points to the EU Innovation Fund, which held €12.3 billion in available funding by June 2025 yet had disbursed only €331.8 million, or 2.7%.
“ETS revenues need to be channelled into electrification projects. That’s the way to strengthen Europe’s competitiveness and sovereignty,” said WindEurope CEO Tinne Van der Straeten. “Electrification immediately replaces imported fossil fuels with homegrown electricity and improves our energy security. Yet so far, ETS revenues have not been used in the right way.”
WindEurope argues that electricity covers just 4% of the heat European industry uses in its processes, while existing technology such as industrial heat pumps and electric boilers could already electrify 930 TWh of that demand, most of it below 500°C. Its recommendations include preserving the carbon price signal, redirecting ETS-funded instruments toward ready-to-electrify sectors rather than speculative hydrogen and carbon capture schemes, overhauling the Innovation Fund, recognising corporate power purchase agreements, and rewarding projects that replace imported fossil fuels.
The group frames electrification as an energy-security measure. Europe imports more than 60% of the energy it consumes as fossil fuels, and spent an extra €22 billion on fossil imports in the first 44 days of the Iran war. Wind now supplies about a fifth of Europe’s power, WindEurope says, and connecting that capacity to industrial demand is where ETS money should go.
