In 2023, the IEA estimated that around 35% of progress to net zero will come from technologies still under development.2 FCA promotes and advances innovation in neglected sectors by engaging with policymakers to prioritize R&D, building and coordinating the field, and directly engaging in research.
We think the EU is an important region for both technology and policy innovation and that EU policy has spillover effects on global emissions. For example, the EU’s Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) incentivizes its importers to reduce the embedded emissions of products and incentivizes foreign policymakers to enact their own carbon prices. The EU's fuel rules for aviation and shipping send some of the world's strongest long-term demand signals for low-carbon fuels. Major heavy industry sectors are also included in key EU policy instruments like its Emissions Trading Scheme, Net-Zero Industry Act, and Innovation Fund. We think EU policy is especially open to nonprofit advocacy, that FCA has demonstrated a sophisticated ability to use EU policy to drive progress, and that FCA can help secure further policy wins in the coming years.3
Sectors and Technologies We Assessed
Cement
Cement manufacturing accounts for around 8% of global emissions.4 Cement production is considered difficult to decarbonize because of its high energy demand and because two-thirds of cement’s direct emissions are a result of chemical reactions that cannot be mitigated by using clean energy.5
FCA advocates for a combination of solutions to reduce cement emissions. Namely, reducing demand for concrete; integrating carbon capture, use, and storage (CCUS); using renewables to power manufacturing; and developing alternative manufacturing processes. It advocates for prioritizing the most cost-effective solutions, such as alternative binders, ahead of more costly and disruptive solutions, like CCUS. It specifically recommends policies that enhance material and structural efficiency, leverage carbon pricing, increase access to green finance, mandate green public procurement, and adopt performance-based standards.6
In addition to its policy engagement, FCA also co-developed the CemSol research consortium, a partnership with the German Federal Ministry for Economy and Energy, the German Aerospace Center (DLR) Institute of Future Fuels, ThyssenKrupp, and the DIRKRA group. The consortium investigated how solar thermal energy can supply the high-temperature heat needed for cement manufacture and make capturing process emissions easier. FCA assessed the global scalability of the process, estimating the global mitigation potential of CemSol and co-authored a techno-economic study of the process.7 The project concluded in 2026; the consortium developed a successful technological prototype and found that the economic feasibility was roughly in line with some types of CCUS, but could be less competitive than electrified heating.
Industrial Heat
Three-quarters of industrial CO2 emissions result from burning fossil fuels to provide process heat.8 Temperatures up to ~400°C can be electrified relatively easily with mature technologies and can also, in several instances, be cheaper than fossil-fuel alternatives.9 On the other hand, significant engineering and economic challenges must still be overcome to electrify high-temperature heat (HTH) processes (defined by FCA as 500-2000°C), but commercialization is underway; electrification could be feasible in the medium term.10 FCA works across the industrial heat temperature spectrum, but focuses more on HTH because it requires more innovation.
FCA’s 2024 HTH report provides a technology assessment and policy recommendations for decarbonizing HTH processes. Its HTH decarbonization strategy is based on replacing fossil heat with electric heat and thermal energy storage (TES), along with a further expansion of other clean energy technologies, including clean firm power (e.g., geothermal and nuclear power) and renewable heat (e.g., solar thermal and geothermal heating). It advocates for policies that accelerate the deployment of technologies to lower electricity costs and increase R&D funding for clean electric and thermal heat technologies.
In 2025, FCA published a policy brief on scaling thermal energy storage (TES) and, at the European Commission’s request, prepared case studies showing that TES is a cost-effective enabler for industrial heat electrification in the dairy and steel industries. The Commission’s July 2026 Electrification Action Plan notably cited one of these case studies.11
FCA’s credibility in this area led to it advising the Commission on the design of the EU’s first auction for clean industrial heat in 2025, with a budget of up to €1 billion ($1.1 billion USD).12 The auction selected 65 projects and awarded around €400 million ($450 million) in grants, which the Commission expects to avoid more than 6.6 million metric tons of CO2 over 10 years.13 FCA has since worked with the Commission to assess the auction’s impact after funds allocation, and its valuable contributions led the Commission to invite it to help design the second auction in 2026, also worth €1 billion.
We think the Commission’s continued requests for FCA’s input, and its citation of FCA’s analysis in a flagship policy document, are positive signals of FCA’s position as a trusted technical contributor to EU industrial heat policy.
Aviation and Maritime Shipping
Aviation and maritime shipping account for roughly 2.5% and 3% of global emissions respectively, and both sectors’ emissions are expected to grow as demand rises.14 Aviation’s total climate impact is even larger, because its non-CO2 effects, mostly from contrails, are at least as significant as its CO2 emissions.15 Both sectors are considered hard to abate: aircraft and ships stay in service for decades, much of their activity crosses borders so effective regulation requires multilateral consensus, and decarbonization technologies are still being commercialized.16
FCA’s aviation priorities include reducing aviation’s contrail emissions and directing innovation funding toward critical research gaps across aviation based on hydrogen, electric, and sustainable aviation fuels (SAFs). Its policy priorities include advancing policies to reduce contrail emissions, promoting land-based alternatives to short-haul flights, strengthening carbon pricing mechanisms such as the Emissions Trading System (ETS), increasing R&D spending for innovative electric propulsion technologies, and supporting fuel mandates ReFuelEU Aviation and FuelEU Maritime.
Shipping is an emerging workstream for FCA. It has completed new research on shipping decarbonization and is building an interactive tool for exploring decarbonization pathways. It held its first Coffee & Cleantech briefing on shipping, attended by officials from the European Commission and Parliament.17 It also plans to publish a broader shipping decarbonization report ahead of the revision of FuelEU Maritime.
FCA also advocates for the prioritization of scarce e-fuels and biofuels for aviation and shipping rather than road transport, since their use in road transport is less energy- and cost-effective than electric vehicles or internal combustion engines.18 It recommends removing the fuel credit system from the Commission’s proposed revision of the CO2 standards for cars and vans so that these resources can be instead used for harder-to-decarbonize sectors.19 We think FCA’s cross-sectoral, systems view on resource prioritization is generally neglected in advocacy discourse.
In September 2025, the European Parliament’s Committee on Industry, Research and Energy (ITRE) asked FCA to produce a technical report on the Commission’s Delegated Act setting the greenhouse gas methodology for low-carbon fuels with the purpose of providing evidence to inform the Committee's final decision. FCA was also asked to present its findings directly to ITRE. The Committee agreed with FCA’s recommendation and the Act entered into force in November 2025. We view this engagement as a positive signal that the Parliament values and trusts FCA’s technical expertise and recommendations, especially because the Act was highly contested.20
FCA is also currently preparing a technical assessment of the scalability, risks, and constraints of different SAF production pathways, following its discussions with EU policymakers; chairs a working group on reducing the sulfur and aromatic content of jet fuel to limit contrail formation and air pollution; and participates in an NGO coalition working on the revisions of the EU ETS and ReFuelEU Aviation.
Hydrogen
Hydrogen is likely to play a large role in the future decarbonization of sectors where alternative solutions are unfeasible, such as certain heavy industry and transport applications.21 However, hydrogen production today is almost entirely fossil-based, and low-carbon hydrogen meets only a fraction of global demand.22 Therefore, FCA emphasizes the need for policymakers to prioritize hydrogen use for sectors where it is necessary and deprioritize use for sectors where alternatives exist that are more efficient or have a lower carbon abatement cost, such as light-duty transport, low-temperature heating, and power generation.23
In early 2024, FCA engaged with key journalists and policymakers on hard-to-abate sectors through the Munich Security Conference and the Future Cleantech Festival. As a direct result, it learned of major potential funding to support synthetic natural gas (SNG) deployment. This prompted FCA to conduct a detailed analysis of SNG, finding that it is an inefficient and energy-intensive option compared to other decarbonization pathways.24 FCA summarized its findings in a brief presentation, which was used in bilateral discussions with policymakers and journalists, and also launched a wider social media campaign around different hydrogen derivatives and use cases. Its work resulted in an influential article in Frankfurter Allgemeine, where FCA was extensively quoted. We believe this is indicative of FCA’s thought leadership and expertise on the key concerns and risks associated with SNG. Ultimately, the government chose not to support SNG projects during this round of funding, a result which we believe is in part due to FCA’s work.25
FCA is also engaging with the Commission ahead of the upcoming revision to the EU’s hydrogen strategy. As part of this work, FCA published a 2026 policy standpoint, identifying the most important industrial sectors for hydrogen development, and was also invited to speak in a private policy seminar and the Commission’s energy policy conference.
Clean Firm Power
In general, we think an energy portfolio that includes clean firm power provides a more feasible path to net-zero emissions than one based on intermittent renewables alone because intermittent renewables are dependent on unpredictable weather conditions and fluctuate across the day and seasons.26 We think clean firm power is especially important for decarbonizing heavy industry because these industries require substantial amounts of continuous energy to sustain high-temperature processes, which are difficult to meet when using variable renewable energy sources. FCA advocates for greater mainstreaming of clean firm power sources in policy and public discourse, including hydropower, geothermal, concentrated solar power (CSP), long-duration energy storage (LDES), TES, and nuclear energy. Some of these clean firm power sources (e.g., CSP, LDES, TES, and advanced geothermal) are also classified as ‘innovative renewable energy technologies,’ which FCA has successfully advocated for (see Assumption 1 in ‘Examining the assumptions behind FCA’s theory of change,’ below).
Future Cleantech Architects’ Strategies
Policy Research and Education
FCA engages in policy advocacy through several mechanisms:
- It provides swift and tailored policy advice in response to direct requests from policymakers. FCA also adapts its bilateral policy engagement work to make general, open-access policy briefs, such as its Book and Claim report for sustainable aviation fuels.
- Its technical briefing series ‘Coffee & Cleantech’ brings together policymakers and advisors in Brussels to brief them on the pathways to decarbonize the most neglected sectors.
- It meets monthly with Directorates-General (DGs) and Agencies of the European Commission (e.g., DG Energy, DG Climate Action, DG Research and Innovation, the European Innovation Council (EIC), and the Innovation Fund). The aim of these meetings is to shape upcoming policy discussions and discuss technical and policy priorities for hard-to-abate sectors.
- It participates in closed group discussions with industry and policymakers, such as the European Commission’s Renewable and Low-Carbon Fuels Value Chain Industrial Alliance and the Cleantech Friendship Group, a group of Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) and technical experts who aim to advance clean technology in Europe.
Field Coordination and Thought Leadership
We think one of FCA’s key strengths is its ability to track the innovation landscape of neglected sectors. It uses this knowledge to bring attention to these sectors and actively coordinate efforts to fill research gaps. Its field coordination activities include:
- Co-hosting the Future Cleantech Festival with UN Climate Change, the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO), the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), Mission Innovation, and EIC. The festival brings stakeholders together to drive momentum in priority sectors, including by bringing a delegation of policymakers to learn about the techno-economic challenges innovators face.27
- Writing its series ‘The Basics & The Gaps’: FCA’s series of factsheets to summarize key facts, figures, and policy recommendations on urgently needed innovation. These are easily converted into briefs to feature in its ‘Coffee & Cleantech’ series and to otherwise support FCA’s policy advocacy.
- Publishing a joint series on cleantech innovation with Handelsblatt, the widest circulating German-language business and financial newspaper. FCA estimates that this series has reached over 25 million readers in 2026.
- Serving as a technical advisor to the European Commission’s progress report on the competitiveness of clean energy technologies.
- Co-hosting events at COP 26 through COP 30 in partnership with institutions like UN Climate Change, which aimed to inform key decision-makers of cleantech sectors where efforts must be accelerated.
- Collaborating with the Technology Executive Committee (TEC) of UN Climate Change to survey policymakers, planners, innovators, researchers, and NGOs and publish comprehensive findings on the future global RD&D decarbonization needs. FCA and IRENA will lead the development of the TEC’s Policy Brief on the potential for energy storage.
- Partnering with the EIC to elevate the technical, business, and policy challenges of LDES and cement projects. The EIC is an EU body and Europe’s largest deep technology investor, with a €10 billion budget (around $11 billion USD) for transformative innovations.28
Research and Technical Analysis
In addition to its work to steer innovation at a high level, FCA directly contributes to innovation through technical analysis, which makes up roughly one-quarter of its work. For example, it publishes reports on the technological and policy pathways to decarbonizing neglected sectors. It also assembles and contributes to research consortia made up of research institutions, private sector companies, nonprofits, and academia. These projects serve to a) support innovators establishing first-of-a-kind technologies, b) build knowledge among the private sector, and c) gather insights about the technical, institutional, and economic barriers to advancing breakthrough climate technologies, which are used to inform FCA’s policy advocacy. In addition, FCA also collaborates with incumbent industries to help them transition to low-carbon production.
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2“In our 2021 report, the share of emissions reductions in 2050 from technologies under development was almost half: that figure has now fallen to around 35% in our updated NZE Scenario.” IEA, 2023
3“In a typical year, the EU supports between 25 and 30 organisations.” European Parliament, n.d. “Targeted advocacy by NGOs such as the European Climate Foundation was also a key ingredient to driving policy change” Kreienkamp, Pegram and Coen, 2022
4“Global cement manufacturing is responsible for about 8% of the world's total CO2 emissions.” World Economic Forum, 2024
5“A key example is the CO2 that results from the calcination reaction that is necessary to produce clinker, the active ingredient in cement, and that constitutes around two-thirds of the direct emissions in the sector.” IEA, 2020
6Section: Recommendations FCA, 2024
7The coupling capability refers to the use of solar thermal energy to improve the performance of CCUS, since it could “promote the activity and/or manipulate selectivity in CO2 reduction” Wang et al., 2019; “FCA is in charge of the investigation of the scalability and coupling capability of the process and will also identify fields in which the technology can be implemented. Finally, FCA will lead the techno-economic study that will provide indications of the further scale-up potential of such a technology compared to reference processes.” FCA, n.d.
8“Three quarters of industrial CO2 emissions result from burning fossil fuels that provide process heat for the production of industrial goods” Agora Industry, 2024
9Stage 1: Entry points for industry electrification with mature technologies has temperature limits of 100-400°C; “St2 [stage 2] involves technologies that are already established in industry and can supply heat above 400 °C.” Madeddu et al., 2020 ; "[E]ven without carbon taxation, the levelized cost of heat decreases by 19% compared to a gas boiler at a maximum heat pump temperature of 160 °C." Vieren et al., 2025
10“Direct electrification technologies expected to be available by 2035 could meet 90 percent of the energy demand not yet electrified by European industry.” Agora Industry, 2024
11“For instance, a case study in the dairy sector concluded that investments in high-temperature heat pumps can break even with gas systems in 10 years if the electricity-gas price ratio is around 2.” European Commission, 2026
12 “Launched in February 2025 as part of the Clean Industrial Deal, the Innovation Fund 2025 Heat Auction (IF25 Heat Auction) promotes the decarbonisation of key industrial processes.”; “This fixed-premium auction has a budget of up to €1 billion raised from the auctioning of EU Emissions Trading System (EU ETS) allowances” European Commission, n.d. [accessed Oct 2026]
13“The selected projects, with their use of innovative technologies, will avoid more than 6.6 million tonnes of CO2 emissions over 10 years by replacing natural gas-fuelled heat production systems”; “The projects will receive a total amount of around €400 million in grants from the Innovation Fund.” European Commission, 2026
14“While aviation accounts for around 2.5% of global CO2 emissions, its overall contribution to climate change is higher.” Our World in Data, 2024; “The share of shipping emissions in global anthropogenic emissions has increased from 2.76% in 2012 to 2.89% in 2018.” IMO, 2020; “Emissions are projected to increase from about 90% of 2008 emissions in 2018 to 90-130% of 2008 emissions by 2050 for a range of plausible long-term economic and energy scenarios” IMO, 2020; “annual emissions nearly triple assuming BAU changes (+175%), driven by surging demand for air transport” Bergero et al., 2023
15“The climate impact of aviation’s non-CO₂ effects is at least as important as the impact of aviation’s CO₂” T&E, n.d.
16“Planes are built to last, with an average lifetime of 25 years.” FCA, 2024; “Vessels operate for decades, which means a slower replacement cycle than other industries” CTVC, 2023; “Over 1/2 of aviation’s emissions come from international travel, which requires multilateral consensus to be regulated.” FCA, 2023
17“Key points discussed with representatives from the European Commission and the European Parliament” FCA, 2026
18“From an efficiency perspective, producing e-fuels for cars proves to be the least efficient conversion pathway at ~16% efficiency when compared to conventional fuels at 27% efficiency, and BEVs at 73% efficiency.”; “From a total cost of ownership (TCO) perspective, an e-fueled car proves to be the most expensive option with a lifetime cost that is ~91% more expensive than a conventional ICEV, and ~112% more expensive than a BEV.” FCA, 2026
19“Proposals that have been put forward to delay or limit electrification in road transport may incentivize the use of biofuels and e-fuels in road transport, despite a need for these resources in sectors with few alternatives such as aviation and shipping” FCA, 2026
20“The European Parliament has rejected two motions seeking to block the European Commission's delegated act on low-carbon hydrogen, clearing the way for the text to enter into force unless the European Council objects by 8 November. The parliament vote followed months of intense political debate over the act, which was put forward in July aiming to provide legal clarity for hydrogen producers and investors.” Argus Media, 2025
21“Hydrogen and hydrogen-based fuels can play an important role in the decarbonisation of sectors where emissions are hard to abate and alternative solutions are either unavailable or difficult to implement, such as heavy industry and long-distance transport. “ IEA, n.d.
22Graph: Global hydrogen production by technology (Mt): >99% fossil; “Low-carbon H2 can only meet a minimal fraction of today’s global demand” FCA, 2024
23Section: Hydrogen prioritization: Incompatible Sectors (buildings, road transport, electric power generation); “Hydrogen should be prioritized for the sectors where it has the most effective carbon abatement potential” ” FCA, 2024
24“The SNG pathway is an inefficient and energy-intensive option when compared to other decarbonization options.” FCA, 2024
25“Keine Förderung von synthetischem Erdgas durch Klimaschutzverträge” (translation: “No promotion of synthetic natural gas through climate protection agreements”) Handelsblatt, 2024
26“As the share of renewables increases from current levels (20–30%), the inherent variability of renewable supply - intermittency - will be felt across the whole system. Wind and solar outputs are completely dependent on the weather, its natural changes, its uncertainties and its periodicity.” Cosgrove, Roulstone, & Zachary, 2023
27See the takeaways from FCA’s 2026 festival from FCA and EIC
28“It has a budget of €10.1 billion to support game changing innovations throughout the lifecycle from early stage research, to proof of concept, technology transfer, and the financing and scale up of start-ups and SMEs.” EIC, 2024
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