European Commission drafts delegated decision on Netherlands' request to unilaterally include additional activities and gases under EU ETS

The European Commission (DG CLIMA) published an initiative (Ares(2025)5146968) to assess and approve a request from the Netherlands under Article 24 of the ETS Directive (2003/87/EC) for unilateral inclusion of additional activities and gases in the EU ETS, along with corresponding issuance of additional allowances. The process has moved through the planning workflow and is now in the inter-service consultation (ISC) stage on a draft delegated decision, ahead of formal adoption.

Unilateral inclusion mechanisms allow individual Member States to expand ETS coverage beyond the harmonised scope, altering the pool of covered emissions and allowances in that jurisdiction. Approval would set a template for how national requests to broaden ETS coverage are assessed and could marginally affect allowance supply and compliance obligations for newly covered installations in the Netherlands, with limited but non-zero implications for overall market balance and precedent for other Member States.

This is a narrow, Member-State-specific delegated act rather than a systemic ETS1/MSR reform, but it is procedurally significant as a live test of Article 24 unilateral inclusion powers. The addition of allowances tied to newly included activities/gases has a marginal supply-side effect on the EU ETS allowance pool and could influence how installations covered by the new scope engage in compliance and secondary market trading. Because the decision is delegated (not requiring full co-legislative approval), the adoption path is comparatively fast once inter-service consultation concludes, though no firm timeline is yet disclosed.

Directive 2003/87/EC (EU ETS Directive), Article 24 unilateral inclusion provisions; delegated decision procedure

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