“ETS, an old Nokia phone in a smart phone world?” [Jos Delbeke, RM #4]

Raw Matters Episode #4 (April 2026): “Is ETS an old Nokia phone in a smart phone world?” [Jones, Blanpain, Delbeke]

Is ETS “an old Nokia phone in a smart phone world?” (*) That’s the question posed to Jos Delbeke in this new Raw Matters episode by host Peter Tom Jones and guest co-host Bart Blanpain. And what needs to happen to the ETS system to allow Europe’s transition to green steelmaking to come to fruition. As one of the old expressions in English goes: “Hear it straight from the horse’s mouth”. Given Jos Delbeke is Europe’s most Senior Climate Official and chief architect of the ETS system, his opinions and guidance DO MATTER to the EC.

SCRAPPING or REVISING ETS?
In Episode #4 of RAW MATTERS Peter Tom Jones (Director SIM2 KU Leuven) and Bart Blanpain (SIM² KU Leuven, Professor in Metallurgy) speak at length with Jos Delbeke, Europe’s most Senior Climate Official and founding father of Europe’s Emission Trading Scheme for CO2 emission rights. In the first part of the podcast the ETS is fully unravelled: how did it come about? How does it work and why is it so strongly under attack today? Then, the discussion shifts to how the ETS system is working out for Europe’s steel industry and its on-going transition to climate-neutral operations. Find out which modifications Jos Delbeke proposes to boost the resilience of the ETS system, ensuring that decarbonisation and competitiveness can still go hand in hand. How to avoid Europe turns into an industrial museum?

JOS DELBEKE?
Jos Delbeke (1954, BE – Phd in economics from KU Leuven) is Professor at the European University Institute in Florence (Italy) and teaches also at KU Leuven (BE). Since 2020 he holds the EIB Chair on Climate Change Policy and International Carbon Markets. He was the Director-General of the EC’s DG Climate Action since its creation in 2010 until 2018. Delbeke was highly involved in developing the EU Climate Policy and the Emissions Trading System (ETS). He was responsible for developing Europe’s International Climate Change strategy and was for several years the EC’s chief negotiator at the UNFCCC Conference of the Parties. He played a key role on the EU’s implementation of the Kyoto Protocol and in the negotiations on the Paris Agreement.

(*) credits to Bjorn Koopmans for the inspiration (flip phone replaced by Old Nokia!)