Up to a third of EU decarbonisation fund spent on natural gas, report finds

4 August 2026, Euractiv

A big chunk of the EU’s flagship industrial decarbonisation fund was spent on fossil fuels and other climate-unfriendly programmes, according to a report published on Wednesday.

In the late 2010s, Brussels created the Modernisation Fund to soften the blow of the carbon price paid by European factory and power plant operators under the ‘Emissions Trading System’ (ETS), which is currently over €80 a tonne of CO2.

The scheme is worth some €50 billion from 2021 to 2030 and is intended to help clean up the economy of less wealthy member states, largely located in the east of the EU.

Notably, however, much of the money has gone towards less than clean pursuits, the campaign group CEE Bankwatch warns as the European Commission looks to extend the programme for another decade until 2040 as part of an ongoing ETS reform.

Paradoxically, “for every €3 spent on favourable projects, at least €1 goes to harmful investments”, the group wrote in a report published on Wednesday, which was shared with Euractiv ahead of publication.

Read the full article here: Up to a third of EU decarbonisation fund spent on natural gas, report finds | Euractiv