Bioenergy Europe welcomes the publication of the Net-Zero Industry Act (NZIA). However, they lament a lack of strategic vision for the bioenergy industry and net negative technologies such as bioenergy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS).
The Net-Zero Industry Act (NZIA) is part of the Green Deal Industrial Plan, which aims to strengthen the competitiveness of Europe's net-zero industry and support the rapid transition to climate neutrality by simplifying permitting and accelerate while supporting the scaling up of sustainable technologies.
The proposal, which was presented on Thursday, March 16, is an important step towards rapid scale-up and faster deployment of renewable solutions together with carbon capture and storage technologies (CCS).
Yet the absence of bioenergy from the list of strategic net-zero technologies shows a clear lack of vision from the European Union. This strong focus on CCS technologies overshadows the negative emissions technologies and carbon dioxide removal technologies (including BECCS) needed to achieve a European net-zero industry. Strengthening the EU market for BECCS would enable many of these innovative projects to be delivered quickly and contribute to achieving negative emissions at scale, as evidenced by the flagship EU-funded BECCS Stockholm project, which aims to remove 800.000 tons of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere every year in Stockholm alone. The large-scale support of BECCS is essential as it would enable Europe to lead BECCS technologies at a global level and further strengthen the leading role of bioenergy among other industrial players.
If bioenergy and BECCS are not considered strategic assets in the Net-Zero Industrial Act, and receive insufficient support, this would encourage EU bioenergy technology suppliers to outsource their production to non-EU territory. Given the existing 50.000+ companies and manufacturers in the EU and the 800.000 jobs across the value chain, this would weaken the EU's economy and reduce its industrial competitiveness.
“The NZIA proposal focuses heavily on a limited selection of technologies, while it should also further support innovative carbon dioxide removal solutions such as BECCS,” said Ennio Prizzi, policy officer at Bioenergy Europe. “BECCS is an industrial technology that can capture and permanently store carbon; and is already a prominent, developed and cost-effective carbon removal solution that can achieve net negative emissions. Without the right support, innovative CDR technologies would be a missed opportunity.”
Source: Bioenergyeurope.org
