Industrial Strategy

In March 2020, the European Commission introduced "A New Industrial Strategy for Europe" to modernize and decarbonize industries, promote sustainable mobility, and ensure low-carbon energy supply, with the goal of making the European Green Deal the new growth strategy. The strategy emphasized the need for competitive transformation, clear long-term signals for investors, followed by the "Hydrogen strategy" and "Smart sector integration communication" in 2021 to support the transition towards climate neutrality by 2050.

Then, in 2022 the “US Inflation Reduction Act” was published, with the clear intention of providing incentives to the US industrial production. It has been focused on rate of progress, facilitating early and sustained investment, project-by-project. The incentives– mainly providing federal tax credits - would allow an easy and simple incremental value to be assigned to an investment for low or zero-carbon production of goods.

In contrast, EU legislation has been focussing on targets, underpinned by exclusions or bans of some technologies and penalties, which gave signals as to the requirements, size and shape of future markets. Such a framework does not favour investment decisions and impedes clear financial evaluations of how low-carbon products would increase above the value of today’s incumbent products.

This is why the “Net Zero Industry Act” has been proposed by the European Commission in 2023 and formally adopted in June 2024. FuelsEurope welcomes it in its aim of promoting the ramp-up of critical technologies and their deployment to help EU decarbonization objectives; it also praises its emphasis on industrial investments and competitiveness. This Regulation shows a renewed attention towards energy security, providing a possible response to new global challenges. With this perspective, FuelsEurope underlines that a system based on incentives and promoting the deployment of all renewable and low-carbon technologies would help the resilience of the EU industry which, unfortunately, is facing a growing and dangerous trend of de-industrialization.

In July 2024, Ursula von der Leyen presented the Commission’s Political Guidelines for 2024-2029, in light of the current political climate and the composition of the European Parliament following the elections, the guidelines reflect the reality by completing the European Green Deal with the Clean Industrial Deal (CID). The CID aims to establish the competitiveness of the EU economy as a priority for the new legislature, which will include a proposal for an Industrial Decarbonisation Accelerator Act. The latter aimed to support industrial planning, permitting processes and more for energy intensive sectors by reducing red tape and admin burden. FuelsEurope is ready to actively contribute to these key initiatives which will support our sector throughout the transition towards a climate neutral EU by 2050.  

Publications:

• FuelsEurope’s feedback on the Clean Energy – Strategy for Energy System Integration
• FuelsEurope’s feedback on the Clean energy – an EU hydrogen strategy
  
• The Net Zero Industry Act requires a full value chain approach Publications - FuelsEurope
• Europe Needs Clean Fuels for Net Zero - Podcast interview with John Cooper Publications - FuelsEurope
• Joint letter calling for the recognition of Carbon Capture and Utilisation (CCU) as strategic net zero technologies in the EU Net Zero Industry Act Publications - FuelsEurope
• The Net Zero Industry Act: a fast lane, but not wide enough Publications - FuelsEurope
• A New Industrial Strategy for Europe and the Circular Economy Action Plan – A New Way to See the EU Industrial Value Chains Publications - FuelsEurope
• The Net Zero Industry Act shall define the Sustainable Alternative Fuels technologies as “Strategic Net Zero Technology”
• Carbon Capture and Utilisation (CCU) should be recognised as a strategic net zero technology in the EU Net Zero Industry Act