Driving decarbonisation in mobility through the Innovation Fund

Europe’s transport sector is one of the largest contributors to the continent’s annual greenhouse gas emissions. As a hard-to-abate sector, it poses a challenge for Europe’s decarbonisation efforts. Tackling the emissions from the transport is essential for the EU to achieve its climate neutrality goals, strengthen Europe’s competitiveness, and improve the daily lives of its citizens. 

The Innovation Fund is one of the world’s largest funding programmes for commercialising and deploying innovative low-carbon and net-zero technologies to support Europe's transition to climate neutrality. Financed by revenues from the EU Emissions Trading System (EU ETS), it helps businesses invest in clean energy and bring market-ready solutions to scale – driving industrial decarbonisation and strengthening European competitiveness. 

Between 2020 and 2030, the Fund has an estimated budget €40 billion sourced from the EU ETS. From 2020 to 2025, the Fund has given over €4.8 billion (one third of all awarded grants) in support of projects that decarbonise the transport sector. These projects support the production and use of sustainable fuels, the electrification of transport systems, the manufacturing and recycling of batteries for electric vehicles, the building and/or retrofitting of low- and zero carbon ships, airplanes, and heavy-duty vehicles. 

The projects, funded under the Innovation Fund, are implemented by the European Climate, Infrastructure and Environment Executive Agency (CINEA).