March 17, 2023
Announced by EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen as part of the Green Deal Industrial Plan, the proposed Net-Zero Industry Act will be instrumental in scaling up EU green technology manufacturing, creating an array of lucrative jobs. The act will help achieve the EU’s net-zero technologies manufacturing capacity target, reaching at least 40% of the Union’s deployment needs by 2030. The new initiative will drive the EU’s 2030 climate and energy targets to ease reliance on fossil fuels, bringing in attractive investments, creating jobs, and helping the EU become energy independent. Von der Leyen said: “We need a regulatory environment that allows us to scale up the clean energy transition quickly. The Net-Zero Industry Act will do just that. It will create the best conditions for those sectors that are crucial for us to reach net zero by 2050: technologies like wind turbines, heat pumps, solar panels, renewable hydrogen, as well as CO2 storage. “Demand is growing in Europe and globally, and we are acting now to ensure we can meet more of this demand with European supply.” Announced by EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen as part of the Green Deal Industrial Plan, the proposed Net-Zero Industry Act will be instrumental in scaling up EU green technology manufacturing, creating an array of lucrative jobs. The act will help achieve the EU’s net-zero technologies manufacturing capacity target, reaching at least 40% of the Union’s deployment needs by 2030. The new initiative will drive the EU’s 2030 climate and energy targets to ease reliance on fossil fuels, bringing in attractive investments, creating jobs, and helping the EU become energy independent. Von der Leyen said: “We need a regulatory environment that allows us to scale up the clean energy transition quickly. The Net-Zero Industry Act will do just that. It will create the best conditions for those sectors that are crucial for us to reach net zero by 2050: technologies like wind turbines, heat pumps, solar panels, renewable hydrogen, as well as CO2 storage. “Demand is growing in Europe and globally, and we are acting now to ensure we can meet more of this demand with European supply.” Enhancing skills Measures within the act will ensure that a skilled workforce will be created to support the proliferation of EU net-zero technologies. The act will also provide leading industry academics with the necessary arsenal to achieve these goals. Fostering innovation The Net-Zero Industry Act will allow Member States to set up regulatory sandboxes to test innovative net-zero technologies and stimulate innovation under flexible regulatory conditions. Net-Zero Europe Platform A Net-Zero Europe Platform will help the Commission and Member States coordinate action and exchange information around Net-Zero Industrial Partnerships. They will also collaborate to ensure the availability of data to monitor progress toward the objectives of the Net-Zero Industry Act. The Net-Zero Europe Platform will identify financial needs, bottlenecks, and best practices for projects across the EU, fostering contacts across Europe’s net-zero sectors and utilising existing industrial alliances. The regulation will now be discussed and agreed upon by the European Parliament and the Council of the European Union before its implementation. Bioenergy Europe expresses concern over the lack of strategic vision for bioenergy Although Bioenergy Europe welcomes the Net-Zero Industry Act, they believe there is a lack of strategic vision for the bioenergy industry and net-negative technologies like bioenergy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS) Bioenergy Europe explained that the lack of bioenergy in the list of strategic net-zero technologies demonstrates a lack of vision from the European Union. They argue that the heavy focus on carbon capture and storage technologies (CCS) overshadows BECCS solutions essential for achieving carbon neutrality in Europe. Bioenergy Europe believes that establishing an EU market for BECCS would contribute to combating emissions on a large scale and help accelerate the development of many innovative projects. This is demonstrated by the EU-funded project BECCS Stockholm, which aims to remove 800,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere every year in Stockholm alone. The organisation stated that if bioenergy and BECCS are not considered strategic assets in the Net-Zero Industrial Act, the lack of support will cause EU-based bioenergy technology providers to outsource their production to non-EU territories. Ennio Prizzi, Policy Officer at Bioenergy Europe, explained: “The Net-Zero Industry Act proposal focuses heavily on a narrow selection of technologies when it should further support innovative carbon dioxide removal solutions such as BECCS. “BECCS is an industrial technology capable of capturing and permanently storing carbon; and is already a prominent, developed and cost-effective carbon removal solution that can achieve net-negative emissions. Without the right support, innovative CDR technologies would be a missed opportunity.”