39 new, groundbreaking cleantech projects selected under the 2022 Innovation Fund large-scale call gathered for the first time with the European Climate Infrastructure and Environment Executive Agency (CINEA) and the Directorate-General for Climate Action at the Cleantech Conference in Brussels.
Representatives of the projects met on 11 April 2024 in Brussels at the Innovation Fund Cleantech Conference. These highly innovative projects were allocated a total amount of over €3.4 billion of funding following the third large scale call under the Innovation Fund, one of the world’s largest funding programmes for the demonstration of innovative low and zero-carbon technologies. In addition to the 36 projects awarded in December 2023, another three projects finished grant agreement preparation. Altogether, these projects have the potential to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by over 225 million tonnes of CO2 equivalent during their first 10 years of operation.
Kurt Vandenberghe, Director-General for Climate Action said:
“The European Green Deal will transform Europe into a modern, resource-efficient, and competitive economy with no net greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. The Innovation Fund is key to help our economy and industry in Europe to decarbonise, especially sectors with hard to abate emissions, and to strengthen its competitiveness by supporting innovation. It was fantastic to meet the innovators and entrepreneurs from all over Europe in Brussels today and to see how our targets are starting to translate into reality. Together, we stay on track in modernising our economy.”
Paloma Aba Garrote, Director of CINEA, said:
“It was a great pleasure to meet the representatives of the new projects joining the emerging Innovation Fund portfolio to implement solutions for making the transition to a low carbon economy happen. I am firmly optimistic about the future of cleantech manufacturing in Europe. The projects can count on CINEA’s experience and programme management services to help them deliver on their objectives.”
The conference was organised jointly by the Directorate-General for Climate Action and CINEA. Participants discussed pathways for supporting European manufacturing of cleantech devices and their components for renewable energy and energy storage. Maroš Šefčovič, Executive Vice-President of the European Commission, opened the conference emphasising the importance of cleantech manufacturing for Europe. Barbara Thierart, President of Battery Systems of Northvolt, and Henrik Stiesdal, Founder and CTO of Stiesdal, set the scene by giving an account of the challenges and opportunities faced by EU cleantech manufacturers. Several Innovation Fund cleantech manufacturing projects presented concrete pathways and solutions to support Europe’s transition to climate neutrality. The event concluded with an interesting debate on how to unlock investments in cleantech manufacturing.
Background
With an estimated revenue of €40 billion from the EU Emissions Trading System between 2020 and 2030, the Innovation Fund provides financial incentives to invest in cutting-edge low and zero-carbon technologies and support Europe's transition to climate neutrality.
The Innovation Fund has already awarded around €6.5 billion to more than 100 highly innovative projects.
More information
Details
- Publication date
- 11 April 2024
- Author
- European Climate, Infrastructure and Environment Executive Agency