The survey (comprising Parts 1 and 2) is open for all market actors that could benefit from the EU ETS Innovation Fund support. The views of the EU Member States (plus Iceland and Norway), academia, and other stakeholders are also welcome, and are encouraged to focus on Part 2 of the survey.
Context
The achievement of the EU’s ambitious climate target in 2030, reaching climate neutrality by 2050, while at the same time ensuring European industrial competitiveness and security of supply, requires rapid deployment of zero and low-carbon solutions. Many less mature technologies, especially in “hard-to-abate” sectors, will need to move faster to the commercialisation stage in order to be deployed on time and at the right scale. As underlined in the Green Deal Industrial Plan for the Net-Zero Age (COM(2023) 62 final), the EU is committed to speeding up net-zero industrial transformation at home. This brings with it significant investment needs. The EU also has to be ready to lead the way to seize the net-zero industrial opportunities.
The EU ETS Innovation Fund has been established to support private and public sector actors in developing innovative decarbonisation, by providing funding in a number of key sectors, i.e. energy-intensive industry sectors, carbon capture, utilisation and storage applications (CCUS), innovative renewable energy technologies, energy storage, clean tech manufacturing, maritime and aviation. The Commission is currently preparing the revision of the EU ETS Innovation Fund legal basis (Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2019/856) to ensure that it is fully aligned with the revised ETS Directive and draws on the lessons learned from the first years of implementation. At the same time, the Commission is preparing the next calls for proposals and auctions in line with the key political priorities, notably the Green Deal Industrial Plan, the REPowerEU Plan, and the Hydrogen Bank. The objective of this survey is to receive contributions to this work and test the market’s needs.
On the basis of the revised ETS Directive, the EU ETS Innovation Fund has around EUR 40 billion (depending on the carbon price) to invest in projects in the current decade.