Brussels (Brussels Morning Newspaper) – EU Commission to fund €4.8 billion of emissions trading gains into innovative net-zero schemes.
The European Commission has chosen 85 innovative net-zero projects to acquire €4.8 billion in grants from the Innovation Fund, enabling it to put cutting-edge clean technologies into motion across Europe.
As reported by the commission, for the first time, projects of different hierarchies (large, medium and small, alongside pilots) and with a cleantech manufacturing emphasis are awarded under the 2023 call for submissions. This is the biggest since the beginning of the Innovation Fund in 2020, increasing the total amount of support to €12 billion and advancing the number of projects by 70%.
Which countries will host the funded net-zero projects?
According to the EU Commission, the selected projects are placed in 18 countries: Belgium, Denmark, Germany, Estonia, Greece, Spain, France, Croatia, Italy, Hungary, Netherlands, Austria, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Finland, Sweden and Norway. They surround a wide scope of sectors from the following categories: energy-intensive industries, renewable energy, energy storage, Industrial Carbon Management, net-zero mobility (including maritime and aviation) and buildings.
How will these projects reduce CO2 emissions by 2030?
It has been said that the selected projects are selected to enter into function before 2030 and over their first ten years of operation are predicted to reduce emissions by approximately 476 million tonnes of CO2 equivalent. This will assist in European decarbonisation goals, reducing emissions from those sectors that are extremely difficult to decarbonise, supporting European industrial manufacturing capacity and strengthening Europe’s technology leadership and supply chain resilience.
How does the EU Innovation Fund support cleantech growth?
The EU Innovation Fund is one of the world’s most extensive funding agendas for the deployment of net-zero and innovative technologies. It is one of the fundamental tools of the European Green Deal Industrial Plan. With an assessed income of €40 billion from the EU Emissions Trading System between 2020 and 2030, the Innovation Fund is developed to create financial incentives for businesses and public authorities to finance advanced net-zero and low-carbon technologies, helping Europe’s transition to climate neutrality. So far, the Innovation Fund has granted almost €7.2 billion to more than 120 innovative schemes across the EU Economic Area.
