Brussels, 4 March –
The publication of the European Commission’s Industrial Accelerator Act (IAA) was supposed to mark a pivotal moment for the EU’s industrial policy – but after multiple delays, the final version of the Commission proposal falls a long way short of putting industrial decarbonisation at the heart of Europe’s competitiveness agenda.
Despite the European Commission’s overtures to carbon capture and other netzero technologies in the explanatory memorandum, the proposal itself fails to explicitly recognise CCS – including CO₂ transport and storage – as a strategic industrial decarbonisation solution. This is particularly problematic for hardtoabate sectors where deep emissions reductions cannot be achieved through renewable energy and electrification alone.
“The IAA was meant to be the backbone of Europe’s industrial decarbonisation strategy,” said Bergur Løkke Rasmussen, Director of CCS Europe. “In its current form, however, it fails to send the durable demand and investment signals needed to give CCS and CO₂ infrastructure legs,” he added.
CCS Europe recognises that the Act includes low-carbon requirements for certain materials and provisions on green public procurement. But public procurement alone will not deliver the market pull required to scale industrial decarbonisation at the speed and scale set out in EU objectives – especially without a robust Union framework that makes low-carbon products comparable and investable across value chains.
“The CCS value chain cannot wait much longer,” Rasmussen continued. “We need demand signals that unlock private investment, not only public purchasing. Without an EU-wide approach to measuring and labelling GHG intensity, low-carbon products risk remaining niche and unaffordable.”
CCS Europe calls on co-legislators to strengthen the Industrial Accelerator Act by introducing concrete measures on both the private and public demand side.
“An industrial policy that overlooks industrial decarbonization is a total non-starter. Competitiveness and climate leadership must go hand in hand,” Rasmussen concluded.