The European Commission has published the European Research Area (ERA) industrial technology roadmap for low-carbon technologies, which provides a list of key emerging low-carbon technologies for energy-intensive industries and ways to leverage R&I investments to accelerate their development and uptake in energy-intensive industries.
The roadmap complements the revised Industrial Emissions Directive, as proposed on April 5, which will help reach EU’s 2050 zero pollution ambition announced under the European Green Deal. The draft law introduces a revised framework for preventing and controlling industrial pollutants emissions from large industrial installations.
Commissioner for innovation, research, education, culture and youth Mariya Gabriel said: "Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has strengthened the case to accelerate the green transition and become more resource efficient.
"In addition to clean energy, developing and up-take of low-carbon technologies is key to meeting the EU’s climate goals, while reducing industry dependence on gas. EU instruments are available but cannot replace national and private investments. There is no time to lose."
Key opportunities for action include the need for:
- Assessing the opportunity for creation of an Industrial Alliance or similar platform for low-carbon technologies in energy-intensive industries, as referred to in the 2020 New Industrial Strategy for Europe. Synergies with the R&I partnership Processes4Planet and the Clean Steel Partnership of Horizon Europe should be fully used, as well as those with other EU instruments, such as the Innovation Fund and InvestEU.
- Facilitation of specific national sectoral and cross-sectoral strategies or programmes with key stakeholders as part of the ERA policy agenda 2022-2024
- Establishment of a community of practice to facilitate the authorisation for first-of-a-kind installation for low-carbon industrial technologies, building upon similar approaches under the European Chips Act, the Regulatory Hubs Network and EU recommendations for approval processes for renewable energy installations and the Hubs4Circularity community of practice
- Enabling further valorisation by exploring with industry the opportunity to open up IP on central (cross-sectoral) green inventions, widening the access to IP for licensing (e.g. patent pool) and knowledge transfer
- Cooperation with European standardisation organisations (CEN/CENELEC) and industrial partnerships to identify and fill standardisation gaps for innovative low-carbon industrial technologies
The roadmap points to a gap between the current overall research and innovation (R&I) investments across energy-intensive sectors and the amount needed to reach EU Green Deal emission targets for 2030 and 2050.
The biggest investment gap concerns investments in the coming years in first-of-a-kind installations for low-carbon industrial technologies and further deployment of mature technologies. This roadmap and all other actions will contribute to closing the gap.