Joint statement on the importance of strong lead markets for low-carbon products

Scaling European low-carbon production is essential to meeting the EU’s climate objectives - and the IAA is the opportunity to do so.

The European Commission’s forthcoming proposal for an Industrial Accelerator Act (IAA) represents a key opportunity to create the market conditions needed for low-carbon industrial production to compete and scale.

Ahead of the Commission’s proposal on 25 February, 40 organisations from across European industrial and manufacturing sectors, research, think tanks and civil society have issued a joint statement calling on the Commission to include stronger lead market measures for low-carbon products.

The statement highlights that the Commission’s current internal draft risks falling short on demand-side ambition, by largely limiting measures to the public sector and potentially making low-carbon requirements optional rather than a default requirement.

It calls for a more robust and predictable framework to create demand at scale, including:

• Lead market measures across a wider range of industrial sectors
• EU-wide, harmonised and performance-based product standards
• Mandatory green public procurement, with complementary low-carbon and EU/EEA origin requirements
• Durable private demand through demand-side mandates and financial de-risking tools

By strengthening both public and private demand, the EU can support industrial decarbonisation, safeguard competitiveness, and advance towards climate neutrality.

📄 The full joint statement and recommendations are available here.