Response to consultation : Testing of market needs in relation to the EU - ETS Innovation Fund and the revision of its legal basis

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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 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 speed 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 the 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 contribution 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 .


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