Jacob Ferrell

Jacob Ferrell

MSc (Human Ecology: Culture, Power & Sustainability)
BA (History & International Development)

Researcher

Team
Topics

Jacob Ferrell is a Researcher in the Climate Programme at Ecologic Institute, which he joined in 2025. A political ecologist by training, he works on EU and German climate policy, focusing on carbon dioxide removal (CDR), industrial decarbonisation, geopolitics and climate justice. He is a native English speaker and also speaks German.

Much of his work looks at how public policy can build demand for permanent carbon removals. For DG CLIMA, he carried out research with CDR buyers and funders under the project Strategy for the Financing of Permanent Carbon Removals and co-facilitated a closed-door workshop in Brussels with more than 50 stakeholders. In Germany, he co-authored a report for the Federal Environment Ministry (BMUKN) on designing a national CDR purchasing programme. He also works on the German Environment Agency (UBA) project Instruments and Governance for Negative Emissions in Germany. He is currently co-authoring a journal article on a near-term EU CDR purchasing programme, and has advised UBA on purchasing criteria for removals under the proposed revision of the EU Emissions Trading System.

As part of the European Climate Neutrality Observatory (ECNO) team, Jacob co-authored the 2026 assessment of all 27 final National Energy and Climate Plans, which found that gaps in national contributions and policies put the EU's 2030 climate and energy targets at risk. He also contributes to the quarterly bulletins of ECNO's Clean Industrial Transition Monitor, which track progress on the Clean Industrial Deal. In addition, he supports the International Carbon Action Partnership (ICAP) capacity-building programme on emissions trading.

Before joining Ecologic, Jacob worked with the U.S. Climate team at the World Resources Institute, where he compiled a database of community benefits frameworks for infrastructure and clean energy projects. Before that, he was Carbon Removal Justice Fellow at the National Wildlife Federation in Washington, D.C. There he led Voices From the Frontlines, a storymap built on interviews with more than 20 environmental justice activists and local conservation groups about carbon removal, and wrote policy briefs for advocacy in Congress. During the same period he was a Junior Non-Resident Research Fellow at the Institute for Responsible Carbon Removal. As a research assistant at Lund University, he contributed research to two books by Andreas Malm and Wim Carton: Overshoot (2024) and The Long Heat (2025).

Jacob holds a master's degree in Human Ecology: Culture, Power & Sustainability from Lund University (Sweden), where his thesis mapped the investment and purchasing networks behind the US carbon removal industry and found it to be driven mainly by the tech and finance sectors. He also holds a bachelor's degree in History & International Relations from Ohio State University (USA).

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Recent content by Jacob Ferrell

Publication:Policy Brief
 
ECNO’s 2026 update provides the first comprehensive assessment of all 27 final National Energy and Climate Plans (NECPs). It evaluates whether Member States’ contributions and policy frameworks are sufficient to meet the EU’s 2030 climate and energy targets. The results show a clearer and more complete picture than previous assessments. However, the overall conclusion remains unchanged: despite some progress, the EU is still not fully on track to meet its 2030 targets.

Delivering the EU's 2030 Climate and Energy Targets

Gaps in national contributions and policies

Year

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Publication:Report
 
The transition to a clean and competitive industrial base is crucial to strengthening Europe’s resilience and strategic economic independence. The Clean Industrial Transition Monitor by ECNO assesses real-world progress using more than 50 indicators and provides a comprehensive and nuanced picture of both progress and remaining gaps.

Moving to a Clean Industrial Future in Europe

Clean Industrial Transition Monitor

Year

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Event:Workshop
 
On 4 December 2025, Ecologic Institute co-hosted a closed-door workshop in Brussels with DG CLIMA and the World Economic Forum. As part of the EU-Commission funded project Strategy for the Financing of Permanent Carbon Removals, more than 50 representatives from industry, finance, and EU institutions explored how to accelerate private purchases of high-quality permanent carbon removals (CDR). Early corporate purchasers highlighted three drivers: demonstrating climate leadership, meeting voluntary net-zero targets, and positioning themselves for emerging business opportunities in permanent removals. Participants pointed to high costs, reputational concerns, complex contracting, and policy uncertainty as key obstacles. Many stressed the need for clearer long-term EU policy to give companies confidence to buy early.

Learning from Buyers – Unlocking Private Purchases of EU CDR

Closed door workshop


Brussels, Belgium

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Project
 
Technopolis and the Ecologic Institute are developing policy instruments to support the market uptake of CO₂ removal technologies in Germany. Both nature-based and technological CDR approaches are taken into account. The research project focuses in particular on instruments and policy mixes that can be applied after a pilot phase to enable the large-scale deployment of CDR.

Instruments and Governance for Negative Emissions in Germany

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Publication:Report
 
Cover page of the "2025 Flagship Report: State of EU progress to climate neutrality" by the European Climate Neutrality Observatory (ECNO). The image shows a panoramic view of a green urban park with various climate-related icons overlayed, and a city skyline in the background. The title highlights the report’s focus on indicator-based assessment across 13 building blocks for a climate-neutral future. Dated September 2025.
The EU is making promising progress on the road to climate neutrality but needs to keep up the pace to achieve the goal. This is the result of the third progress report by the European Climate Neutrality Observatory (ECNO), which has analysed developments in over 150 indicators across all areas of society. The weak points identified provide crucial information for the work of the EU institutions.

State of EU Progress to Climate Neutrality – 2025 Flagship Report

2025 Flagship Report

Year

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Project
 
The European Climate Neutrality Observatory (ECNO) aims to help ensure the EU achieves climate neutrality by providing scientifically rigorous analysis of economy-wide progress and an independent check on EU climate policy processes. ECNO analyses the data underlying a comprehensive set of progress indicators to present a unique, up-to-date picture of the whole economy and identify any gaps in data collection, benchmarking, and monitoring that need to be addressed. Ecologic Institute has developed an indicator framework in a previous project that ECNO's methodology is based on.

European Climate Neutrality Observatory (ECNO)

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