Our research
Access all our publications and columns. Use the filters to easily find what content you are looking for.
Filters
All publications
134 results
Location choice datacenters constrained by power, water, space and public support
- Macro economy
-
Data centers are an indispensable pillar of the digital economy, but their rapid growth also raises questions. And this growth continues, including in the EU. This analysis shows which European countries are best positioned to attract new data centers. To that end, we examine both current and future data center capacity. We address the challenges, both in terms of power grids and investments and costs. This analysis shows how the AI boom, high costs, fragmented EU regulations, and increasingly scarce space are making the choice of location for data centers increasingly complex. We provide insight into the factors that determine data center developers’ site selection, and which EU member states are relatively well-positioned based on these criteria.
Energy: Green growth, with red figures: the EU remains a net importer of clean tech
- Sustainability
-
Demand for clean technologies (also known as ‘clean tech’) from the European Union (EU) is set to rise sharply in the coming years. This is due to not only the EU’s ambition to meet its climate targets, but also to its drive to achieve greater energy security. It is highly likely that the acceleration in demand for clean tech will lead to a further increase in trade flows in clean technologies between the EU and its current trading partners. This analysis focuses on trade flows in clean technologies between the EU and countries outside the EU. We do not only highlight the balance of imports and exports of clean technologies in the EU-27 in relation to countries outside the EU-27, but also show which countries are the EU-27’s most important trading partners. The analysis also examines the impact of recent geopolitical conflicts on trade flows: that impact the region’s energy security. Finally, we assess the feasibility of the EU’s clean tech targets for clean technologies for 2030.
ESG Economist - EU remains vulnerable in supply of critical materials
- Natural resources
-
The EU remains heavily dependent on imports of critical materials, despite efforts at diversification and strategic partnerships with resource-rich countries. Dependence on resource-rich countries increases the EU’s vulnerability to supply chain disruptions. The EU aims to increase mining, processing, and recycling by 2030, but long lead times and high costs make achieving these goals uncertain. The Netherlands plays a central role in the EU trade of critical raw materials, primarily through transit via ports without significant added value. The EU faces technological and economic challenges in effectively recycling critical materials, particularly rare earth metals.
ESG Economist - Europe’s path to energy security
- Natural resources
-
Expanding renewable energy sources, alongside investments in grids, storage, and supply chains, creates a sustainable and affordable energy system while reducing import dependency. Despite progress, projections show a significant gap between the current trajectory and the 2030 targets, prolonging reliance on imported fossil fuels and increasing geopolitical risks. Reducing energy intensity and improving efficiency decouples economic growth from energy consumption, strengthening competitiveness and lowering exposure to volatile energy markets. The expansion of electrification, based on the expansion of renewable energy, is crucial to safeguarding the EU’s energy security. Energy efficiency, innovation and the reuse of raw materials make countries less dependent on volatile energy markets and imports. Expanding storage capacity, refining facilities, and grid infrastructure ensures stability during energy crises and supports the transition to renewables. Integration of cross-border energy systems, aligned policies, and collaborative strategies strengthen resilience and reduce dependencies on external suppliers.
ESG Economist - Impact of the Iran conflict on transition commodities
- Sustainability
-
The Iran conflict is having a major impact on commodity markets. With the outbreak of the war and Iran’s attacks on neighbouring countries’ oil and gas facilities, prices for energy commodities have soared. Such a sharp price reaction in other commodity markets (particularly metals) was initially absent, as the impact of the Middle East conflict on many non-fossil commodities did not immediately lead to widespread panic. It is now almost four weeks on, and many non-fossil commodities are beginning to show their true colours. In this analysis, we take a closer look at the trend in the transition metals index and which specific transition metals have been most affected since the start of the war. We also present the price index for defence metals and how this differs from the trend in the price of transition metals. With this analysis, we provide insight into the various price trends and indicate how this may impact the business sector.
ESG Economist - Netherlands' emissions gap towards 2030 is growing despite progress
- Sustainability
-
The Netherlands is decarbonising, and the transition is in full swing. However, the pace of the transition to a low-carbon economy is not yet sufficient to achieve the climate targets that have been set. This analysis highlights the shortfall and examines the reasons behind it. Among other things, we see that there are numerous initiatives to decarbonise and that many best practices can now be identified. However, the sectors responsible for the largest share of greenhouse gas emissions – the energy-intensive sectors covered by the EU Emissions Trading System (EU ETS) – still face a major challenge in becoming low-carbon. For many companies in these sectors, decarbonisation solutions are often within reach, but it is the preconditions that often create obstacles. In this analysis, we first examine the trend of a number of sustainability indicators for the Dutch economy and the current state in reducing greenhouse gases (GHG) in various sectors. In doing so, we look at, among other things, the feasibility of the 2030 climate target per sector. We then take a closer look at the portion of emissions covered by the EU ETS and how energy-intensive sectors in industry are performing. Specific industrial climate targets are discussed, including the most obvious decarbonisation options. We end this analysis with a conclusion.
ESG Economist - Europe leads climate race, but march to net zero is far from won
- Sustainability
-
To achieve a real acceleration in decarbonisation, both energy production and consumption must switch to renewable and low-carbon energy sources at an accelerated pace. However, this process is still slow and faces some persistent obstacles, including grid congestion, staff shortages, financing challenges, and the often complex and volatile regulations in many countries. Despite the scaling back and reversal of climate policy in many countries – led by the United States (US) – the European Union (EU) remains committed to achieving climate neutrality by 2050, as laid down in the European Climate Law. This further increases the differences in decarbonisation paths between countries/regions and pushes climate targets further out of reach. In this analysis, we examine the current state of play in these decarbonisation paths of the most important countries worldwide and of the EU-27 in particular. What are the trends in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions of countries and what differences are visible? What goals are the largest GHG-emitting countries pursuing with their climate policies and where does the EU-27 stand in this regard? How does final energy consumption (fossil fuel share) relate to GHG emissions and the trend in energy efficiency? And is the pace of GHG emission reduction (post-Paris Agreement) sufficient to ultimately achieve the EU's climate targets? We end this analysis with a conclusion.
ESG Economist - Higher material costs for clean tech put pressure on the transition
- Natural resources
-
In the transition to a climate-neutral economy, the need for low-carbon technologies will increase further, which will also increase demand for the metals that are essential for manufacturing these technologies. It therefore remains important to continue to monitor trends in this area in order to gain a clear picture of the opportunities and risks. The energy transition is putting increasing pressure on many metal markets. Increasingly, quantities of metals such as copper, nickel, cobalt, and lithium will be needed in the coming years. In some cases, this will lead to shortages, but in most cases, supply will be more than sufficient to meet demand. In this analysis, we highlight a number of dominant critical or strategic metals that are necessary and, above all, indispensable in the energy transition. We distinguish between ‘required’ transition metals (the truly indispensable metals) and the ‘relevant’ transition metals (slightly less indispensable). We show which metals are particularly important for the production of four main clean technologies and calculate the impact of the trend in metal prices on the material costs for producing these clean technologies. Finally, we look at how demand for these metals is expected to develop in the coming years in various IEA scenarios and what influence could the supply-demand balance of these metals have on the price trend for energy transition metals. We end this analysis with a conclusion.
ESG Economist - Fewer free allowances forces companies towards low-carbon action
- Sustainability
-
The EU ETS free emission allowances offer companies covered by the emissions trading system protection against competition from abroad. The allocation of free emission allowances limits the costs for ETS companies compared to competitors outside the EU. However, because this system also puts a brake on investments in decarbonization, these free emission allowances will be phased out completely by 2034. From that point on, a carbon border adjustment mechanism (CBAM) will take over to partially minimize the loss of competitiveness. This will bring significant changes, particularly for ETS companies in the industrial sector. In this analysis, we highlight the trend in carbon costs for ETS companies in the Netherlands. To this end, we discuss the structure of the EU ETS in the Netherlands, its trends in ETS emissions, and the balance between free emission allowances and ETS emissions by sector. Finally, we highlight the impact of the phasing out of free emission allowances and the trends in carbon costs for ETS companies towards 2030. We end with a conclusion.
ESG Economist - Efficiency progress is a climate game changer
- Macro economy
-
In this analysis, we examine the trend in emission intensity based on greenhouse gases in the EU-27. Emissions intensity indicates the level of greenhouse gas emissions per unit of activity. Energy and emissions intensity are expected to continue to decline, provided that the EU does not relax its climate policy too much.
