European Commission proposes Net-Zero Industry Act to speed up clean energy tech
The proposed act aims to ensure that EU manufacturing capacity for "strategic net-zero technologies" reaches 40% of the “Union’s annual deployment needs” by 2030.
PHOTO: European Commission building in Brussels, Belgium. Getty Images
The Net-Zero Industry Act will come under the purview of EU's updated Green Deal Industrial Plan that was presented in February.
According to the European Commission, the Net-Zero Industry Act will help the EU to become more self-sufficient when it comes to developing low- and zero-carbon technologies and carbon capture and storage (CCS).
The draft proposal defines electrolysers and fuel cells, biogas/biomethane, CCS and technologies related to manufacturing and deploying renewable hydrogen as "strategic net-zero technologies". These are particularly those that are “commercially available and have a good potential for rapid scale up.”
Also included in the proposal are other "net-zero technologies" such as hydrogen-based e-fuels and nuclear technologies, including those that can produce “energy from nuclear processes with minimal fuel cycle waste" and small modular reactors.
European Commission President Ursula 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.”
She added that the act “will create the best conditions for those sectors that are crucial for us to reach net-zero by 2050.”
The European Commission will now discuss this proposal with the European Council and European Parliament for further amendments, before it can eventually be formally adopted as an EU regulation.
By Konica Bhatt
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