Germany launches carbon CfD scheme

Government expects to budget more than €10bn for subsidy programme in response to US IRA

The German energy ministry has launched its carbon contracts for difference (CCfDs) scheme, aimed at supporting the decarbonisation of production from energy-intensive industries, and expects the first round to take place this year. Robert Habeck, Germany’s federal minister for economic affairs and climate action, has been keen to pitch CCfDs as a response to the US Inflation Reduction Act (IRA). He has also played up the potential to boost the nascent hydrogen industry, while remaining notably silent on the topic of carbon capture. The government is shortly expected to publish a separate carbon management strategy that is likely to include its thinking on the deployment of CCS. “Progr