Prominent industry associations have joined forces to call for a new Industrial Deal that complements the European Green Deal. This initiative emphasizes the need to secure Europe’s energy future, enhance industrial competitiveness, and achieve climate neutrality. It emerges in the context of the European Green Deal’s ambitious targets and the renewed focus on energy security following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The European Green Deal has laid the groundwork for Europe’s transition to a climate-neutral economy, promoting the shift from fossil fuels to a sustainable, circular, and just economic model. Energy-intensive industries are pivotal in this transition, supplying essential materials and products while driving electrification, efficiency, and circularity innovations.
Recent geopolitical events have highlighted the EU’s critical need for energy security. To this end, the EU’s energy policy must deliver clean, secure, and affordable energy to its citizens and businesses. Accelerating the deployment of renewable energy sources, particularly wind power, is essential. Wind energy, constituting 20% of Europe’s electricity consumption, is a key strategic resource for industrial growth.
In their joint statement, industry leaders underscore the importance of coupling the Green Deal with a strong Industrial Deal. This approach aims to provide regulatory stability and coherence, encourage investments in decarbonization, and boost industrial competitiveness. However, current policies do not fully support the necessary frameworks to achieve these goals.
Giles Dickson, CEO of WindEurope:
“Europe’s wind industry is an integral part of Europe’s industrial base. And it’s key to delivering clean, competitive and reliable energy to all of Europe’s other industries. The latter are fundamental to the wind energy supply chain and to Europe’s wider prosperity. They must be strengthened. We must implement the EU Green Deal by complementing it with an Industrial Deal that helps Europe’s industries decarbonize through electrification."
Marco Mensink, Director General of Cefic:
“We will only make a business case for Europe and be able to implement the Green Deal if Europe creates strong and innovative partnerships, across multiple value chains. Cooperation is the strength of Europe. Having the European wind sector as a partner will be a crucial element of any energy intensive industry being able to reduce emissions. The first step is to develop a plan for direct electrification for industry, then we jointly focus to help create the necessary infrastructure and new wind energy capacity. That is what the Antwerp Declaration is about.”
Leaders from various sectors highlighted the integral role of their industries in supporting the wind energy sector and the broader goals of the Green Deal:
“Cement is a critical component in the construction of wind turbine foundations and their recycling, while the growth of renewable energy is indispensable to achieve the cement sector’s net zero ambition. We look forward to a good cooperation with the wind energy sector to support a strong EU industrial policy and help building the business case for decarbonization investments.”
“As Europe’s most electrified sector today, our future is inseparable from a thriving European wind sector. Today’s partnership is an important signal that European value chains are working together to make a collective success of the Green Deal, putting a strong industrial base at the center. European metals producers depend on the delivery of low-carbon electricity at globally competitive prices."
In February 2022, the EU faced a critical challenge when Russia invaded Ukraine, disrupting Europe’s energy imports. With nearly half of the EU’s gas imports sourced from Russia, the urgent need to diversify energy sources and enhance energy security became apparent. In response, the European Commission launched the REPowerEU plan in May 2022. This comprehensive strategy aims to save energy, accelerate the clean energy transition, and diversify energy import sources, significantly reducing EU dependence on Russian gas from 45% in 2021 to 15% by 2023.
The EU’s long-term goal is to become the world’s first climate-neutral continent by 2050. This involves achieving energy security by replacing imported fossil fuels with domestically produced renewable energy and enhancing energy efficiency. Although renewables increasingly contribute to the energy mix, natural gas still constitutes about a quarter of the EU’s energy consumption.
