Ahead of the European Commission’s 17 July deadline for reviewing the EU Emissions Trading System, Bloomberg has again revealed key elements of the bloc’s proposal before the EU executive’s official announcement, citing people familiar with the matter who requested anonymity because the information is not yet public.

In March, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced the ETS Investment Booster, an instrument expected to raise €30 billion through the sale of 400 million allowances to finance industrial decarbonisation. Further details are expected to be announced later this year.

According to Bloomberg, the 400 million allowances would be allocated to selected companies pursuing decarbonisation projects, based on a fixed carbon premium. The allowances would be released periodically over a ten-year period to avoid flooding the market.

The allowances would come from an existing buffer of free permits. If the buffer does not contain enough allowances, the EU would supplement it with certificates from a special reserve for new entrants.

Funding would reportedly be granted on a first-come, first-served basis for projects submitted between 2028 and 2030. However, the timeline remains uncertain, as several public reports suggest that the scheme could begin as early as 2027.

In a separate report, Bloomberg said the European Commission is also considering slowing the pace of emissions reductions, seeking to balance the need to ease the transition burden on industry with the objective of encouraging companies to decarbonise.

According to media reports published yesterday, Poland, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Czechia, Estonia, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Romania and Slovakia have jointly called for a slower reduction in the supply of carbon allowances.

Led by Poland and Italy, the initiative proposes lowering the annual linear reduction factor from the current 4.4% to just over 2%. According to S&P Global, this would extend the availability of allowances until closer to 2050.