EU: Commission issues Net Zero Industry Act

Yesterday, the European Commission unveiled its Net Zero Industry Act, which Politico describes as "a long-awaited proposal aimed at supporting green industries in Europe." He explains: “The proposed regulation aims to ensure that at least 40 % of the block's cleantech demand is produced domestically by 2030. The proposal sets targets for technologies that are considered necessary to decarbonise the bloc's economy, which is to prevent the EU from deepening its dependence on third countries such as China." Commission Vice-President Frans Timmermans told journalists yesterday: "If we want to achieve climate neutrality as we plan by 2050, and if you want to take advantage of all the opportunities this industrial revolution brings and head off the challenges…we're going to need a massive expansion of cleantech manufacturing." were trying to resolve the dispute over whether to include nuclear energy'. He continues: “The final text is ambiguous. Nuclear energy is not included in the list of 'strategic zero net worth technologies'... which can benefit from faster permitting and easier access to financing. Elsewhere in the text, however, the formal definition of net-zero technologies includes "advanced technologies for generating energy from nuclear processes with minimal waste from the fuel cycle" and "small modular reactors". Reuters reports that yesterday seven EU states - including Germany, Spain and Denmark - "stepped up their opposition to France's efforts to include nuclear power in the EU's renewable energy targets".
In a separate article, Politico addresses "five things to know" about the Net Zero Industries Act and the Critical Raw Materials Act, which aims to "strengthen the supply chain." It states that under the Zero Industry Law, “projects that receive the special status of 'strategic project' and have an annual output of more than 1 gigawatt will have reduced permit periods of one year; projects below this level will have the green light within nine months”. But the Financial Times reports that industry leaders have warned that the new plans will fail if they are not backed by more money. For example, the article quotes Giles Dickson, CEO of WindEurope, as saying, "We simply don't have enough factories and infrastructure today to build all the wind power Europe wants." In another article, Politico comments on "Brussels' fight against [the US president's] reforms Biden". It says: "Brussels officials are increasingly irritated that businesses are demanding more state money and threatening to leave Europe and move to America if they don't get it." In a "briefing" on the Commission's proposals, Reuters reports, that they also contain "plans to support the production of clean hydrogen using an EU-funded subsidy system".
Meanwhile, Politico reports that "the European Parliament doesn't like the look of Germany's proposed backroom deal with Brussels to save the internal combustion engine." Citing two parliament officials, Politico reports that Roberta Metsola, the parliament's speaker, will write to EU capitals to "respect" the deal agreed last year to effectively ban the sale of new polluting cars and vans by 2035. . According to the article, the intervention was agreed yesterday in response to Germany - along with Italy, Poland, Bulgaria and the Czech Republic - threatening to "ruin the deal" by insisting that it be allowed after 2035 using vehicles powered only by synthetic fuels made from captured CO2 and hydrogen. (See yesterday's Daily Briefing for more.) Germany's maneuvers risk a wider "contagion" of climate laws, one EU diplomat told the Financial Times, with smaller countries following Berlin's lead and "[lowering] ambition on other things".
Finally, Reuters reports that European Union countries agreed yesterday to "try to reduce the number of farms covered by proposed rules to reduce pollution and greenhouse gas emissions from livestock." This happened "despite criticism from some member states" - including Bulgaria, Germany, Italy and Poland, the news portal writes.

Federica Di Sario, Politico, "Carbon Brief"