Energy Policy Group, EPICO KlimaInnovation, Clean Air Task Force, Tech for Net Zero, 4CE – Institut de l’Économie pour le Climat, Bellona, E3G, Climate Strategies & Partners, Concito, Institut Cirkulární Ekonomiky, ECOS, Instytut Reform, Future Cleantech Architects, Future Matters, and Mission Possible Partnership signed a joint statement on the Industrial Accelerator Act:
Dear Deputy Permanent Representatives,
Joint Statement on the Commission proposal for the Industrial Accelerator Act
We, the undersigned organisations across research organisations, think tanks, and civil society, wish to reiterate recommendations from previous initiatives calling for stronger and more comprehensive lead market provisions under the Industrial Accelerator Act (IAA), and urge co-legislators to increase the level of ambition in the current proposal.
While we welcome the European Commission’s efforts to promote clean manufacturing, we are concerned that the proposal tabled on 4 March 2026 lacks the ambition required to create effective lead markets for low-carbon materials.
Green Public Procurement can lead the way in forming a low-carbon lead market and generate the demand signals necessary to mobilise project investments. Yet the proposed quotas – set at 25% for steel, 25% for aluminium and 5% for concrete – fall considerably short of this ambition, equating to just 1.5% of EU demand for concrete and 1.6% for steel. The EU already has 29.7 million tonnes per year of new low-carbon steel production capacity committed to be operational by 2030 – far outpacing the approximately 2.1 million tonnes of annual low-carbon steel demand generated by the current procurement mandate. For concrete, 17 cement plants have received Innovation Fund awards to decarbonise using carbon capture and storage technology, promising over 25 million tonnes of annual low-carbon cement production by 2032.
Although the real impact of these quotas will depend on how sectoral legislation defines “low-carbon”, at current levels, they will not fully unlock the potential of public procurement to stimulate demand for “low-carbon” materials. Fixed quotas do not reflect the expected growth of low-carbon materials required to meet EU emission reduction targets; to remain effective, they must increase progressively.
Without a progressive increase in quotas, the proposal risks leaving committed supply stranded and failing to provide the demand signals required to unlock further investments.
Furthermore, the proposal falls short by limiting lead market provisions to public procurement. This alone will not generate sufficient demand to drive the scale-up of low-carbon industrial production and limits potential impacts to sectors where public authorities act as major buyers. Expanding these provisions to include private procurement is therefore imperative. Initiatives such as corporate fleet frameworks demonstrate how private demand can be mobilised effectively, and similar approaches should be applied to industrial materials.
Without stronger demand signals from both public and private markets, investment certainty will remain insufficient to support final investment decisions for large-scale decarbonisation projects. The IAA must set a clearer and more ambitious framework that reflects the scale and urgency of the industrial transition.
We therefore call upon co-legislators to strengthen the proposal by increasing the quotas for low-carbon materials over time, ensuring definitions of low-carbon materials are robust, and extending lead market measures to private procurement.
