Open letter: Protecting the Innovation Fund to ensure real climate action and support industrial transformation
On December 14th, a provisional agreement on RePowerEU was made between Parliament and the Council of the European Union.
RePowerEU is Europe’s flagship scheme to decouple its energy system from Russian fossil fuels – an important piece of legislation for achieving the EU climate and energy security goals.
However, the provisional agreement would enable Member States to use grants financed by the Innovation Fund (60%) and front-loading ETS allowances (40%) to pay for the measures in RePowerEU. This will weaken and reduce the size of the Innovation Fund at a time when an overall increase in funding for climate innovation is more needed than ever.
“According to the International Energy Agency, more than half of the emissions reductions needed to achieve climate goals are expected to be delivered by technologies not available at commercial scale,” said Lee Beck, Senior Director, Europe at Clean Air Task Force.
“The Innovation Fund has been at the centre of European climate innovation efforts to date and, given the pressing need for decarbonization options across the entire economy, policymakers should strongly consider expanding our policy suite rather than diverting existing funding to other areas. In the new era of countries pursuing climate-aligned industrial policy, Europe should further expand its innovative policy toolbox to enable cost reductions and ability to set in motion a suite of bold, pragmatic actions to deliver a host of climate technologies and infrastructure at scale”
Clean Air Task Force joined nine other likeminded organizations in expressing concerns. The signatories are:
- Clean Air Task Force
- E3G
- Carbon Gap
- Climate Strategy & Partners
- EUREC
- Ocean Energy Europe
- Jacques Delors Energy Centre
- Bellona Europa
- Cleantech for Europe
