The European Commission published its brand-new proposal for a regulation aimed at strengthening Europe’s net-zero technology products manufacturing, together with a draft regulation on critical raw materials.
The proposed law aims at speeding up permitting and increasing access to finance for technology sectors which are crucial to meet the climate neutrality goals set for 2050. Supported technologies include solar, wind, batteries and storage, heat pumps and geothermal energy, electrolysers and fuel cells, biogas/biomethane, carbon capture, utilisation and storage, and grid technologies. Currently, Europe is a net importer of these technologies, and this Commission’s proposal revolves on 4 pillars to turn the tables around: a predictable and simplified regulatory environment, faster access to funding, enhancing skills and open trade for a resilient supply chain.
The Critical Raw Material Act proposal develops a framework aiming at ensuring a secure and sustainable supply of critical and strategic non-energy and non-agricultural raw materials. The proposal focuses on those inputs that are crucial for strategic sectors, but are subject to high supply risks and often come with negative social and environmental impacts in their extraction and processing procedures.