Renewable energy – Image by Maria Maltseva on Pixabay
(BRUSSELS) – The EU gave its final approval Monday to a regulation establishing a framework of measures to strengthen Europe’s net-zero technology manufacturing ecosystem, known as the ‘Net-zero Industry Act’.
The aim of the Net-Zero Industry Act regulation is to boost the industrial deployment of net-zero technologies that are needed to achieve the EU’s climate goals, using the strength of the single market to reinforce Europes position as a leader in industrial green technologies.
“This legal act will help Europe to lead the global race for green technologies and make sure that our contribution to the fight against climate change also reduces our dependencies, reinforces our strategic autonomy and helps us to create growth and jobs in Europe,” said Belgian economy minister Jo Brouns, for the EU presidency.
The net-zero industry act will create favourable conditions for investment in green technologies by:
- simplifying the permit-granting process for strategic projects
- facilitating market access for strategic technology products (in particular in public procurement or the auctioning of renewable energies)
- enhancing the skills of the European workforce in these sectors (i.e. with net-zero industry academies and high-concentration industrial areas or ‘valleys’)
- creating a platform to coordinate EU action in this area
To foster innovation, the legal act proposes to create favourable regulatory frameworks for developing, testing and validating innovative technologies (known as ‘regulatory sandboxes’).
Progress towards the objectives of the net-zero industry act is to be measured by two indicative benchmarks. First, manufacturing capacity of net-zero technologies, such as solar photovoltaic panels, wind turbines, batteries and heat pumps, reaching 40% of the EUs deployment needs. Second, a specific target for an increased Union share for these technologies with a view to reaching 15 % of world production by 2040.
In addition, the net-zero industry act sets up an annual injection capacity of at least 50 million tonnes of CO2 to be achieved by 2030 in geological storage sites located in the territory of the Union.
Following the Council’s approval of the European Parliament’s position, the legislative act has now been adopted.
After being signed by the President of the European Parliament and the President of the Council, the regulation will be published in the Official Journal of the European Union and will enter into force on the day of its publication.
Net-Zero Industry Act - guide
