ECS 2026: what carbon market leaders said about policy, aviation, and integrity

The European Climate Summit (ECS) 2026 brought together voices from across the energy, finance, and policy sectors to examine where carbon markets stand—and what it will take to move them forward. Here are the key themes that emerged.

Meeting during the European Climate Summit (ECS).

Governments hold the keys

One theme ran consistently across sessions: voluntary corporate action has limits. Several speakers noted that buyer coalitions can generate demand, but cannot alone provide the structural conditions the market needs to scale. Carmen Alvarez, International Policy Lead at Sylvera, pointed to clear government policy and the approval of new project typologies as the foundations without which the market cannot mature. Robin Huedepohl of E.ON reinforced this, warning that companies cannot afford to delay building their decarbonisation strategies while waiting for regulatory certainty.

Steve Kelly, President of 1PointFive, called for policymakers to actively support Carbon Dioxide Removal (CDR) credits and to address cross-border jurisdictional issues that continue to fragment the global carbon credit market.

Aviation faces a complex decarbonisation path

A dedicated session examined the particular challenges facing the aviation sector. Sustainable aviation fuels (SAF) remain central to the industry's plans, but speakers agreed that residual emissions will require high-integrity carbon removals to be addressed fully. Demand is also coming from an unexpected direction: large corporations purchasing and retiring SAF certificates to manage their own Scope 3 aviation footprints, rather than the airlines themselves.

Purchasing patterns are shifting, too. Aviation stakeholders are moving away from lower-cost avoidance credits and towards portfolios that combine nature-based solutions with permanent removals. Airports are now active participants in this market, purchasing high-quality credits to address their own supply chain emissions.

Speakers flagged compliance complexity as a pressing operational issue. Airlines navigating CORSIA, the EU Emissions Trading System (EU ETS), and their own internal targets simultaneously face significant coordination challenges across finance, sustainability, and leadership teams.

CBAM integrity and the IC-VCM's expanding role

Two sessions addressed the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) and the broader question of credit quality in compliance settings. On CBAM, a clear warning emerged: introducing UN-backed Article 6.4 credits as an early compliance option risks undermining the EU ETS carbon price and creating an uneven playing field for European industry.

On standards, the Integrity Council for the Voluntary Carbon Market (IC-VCM) featured prominently as a potential quality gatekeeper for compliance markets. Its Core Carbon Principles (CCPs) are increasingly being considered by regulators as a benchmark to prevent lower-quality credits from diluting national and international schemes. The trajectory points towards a tighter, more unified standard for what counts as a credible carbon credit across both voluntary and compliance contexts.