The European Parliament adopted the Net-Zero Industry Act to boost EU production in technologies needed for decarbonisation.
The ‘Net-Zero Industry Act’, already informally agreed with the Council, sets a target for Europe to produce 40% of its annual deployment needs in net-zero technologies by 2030, based on National Energy and Climate Plans (NECP) and to capture 15% of the global market value for these technologies.
Technologies to be supported include all renewable technologies, nuclear, industrial decarbonisation, grid, energy storage technologies and biotechnology. The law will simplify the permitting process and set maximum timeframes for projects to be authorised depending on their scope and results.
The agreement foresees the creation of ‘Zero Net Acceleration Valleys’ initiatives, speeding up the permitting process by delegating parts of the evidence gathering for environmental assessments to member states.
Sustainability and resilience criteria
National support schemes aimed at faster uptake by households and consumers of technologies such as solar panels and heat pumps should take into account sustainability and resilience criteria. Public procurement procedures and auctions to deploy renewable energy sources must also meet these criteria, albeit under conditions to be defined by the Commission, and for a minimum of 30% of the volume auctioned per year in the Member State, or alternatively for a maximum of 6 Gigawatts per year per country.
The legislation will encourage funding from national Emissions Trading System (ETS) revenues and for most strategic projects through the Strategic Technology Platform for Europe (STEP), and is a step towards a European sovereign wealth fund.
‘This vote is good news for European industry and sets the tone for the next legislature. To achieve all our economic, climate and energy ambitions, we need industry in Europe. This law is the first step towards making our market fit for this purpose,’ said lead MEP Christian Ehler.
The legislation was approved by 361 votes to 121, with 45 abstentions. It will now have to be formally adopted by the Council for it to become law.
The Net Zero Industry Act aligns with the conclusions of the Future of Europe Conference through several key proposals and measures. In particular, the Act reflects several proposals of the Conference which, taken together, aim to foster a sustainable, resilient and independent energy framework within the EU.
Source: El periódico de la energía
