EU Industrial Strategy – EEB Response

The European Commission’s EU Industrial Strategy is supposed to ensure European industry is climate-neutral by 2050, yet it unfortunately fails to live up to promises made by Ursula von der Leyen, who called for “bold steps” and a Commission that would “strive for more” in her address to the European Parliament in July 2019.

In this response paper the European Environmental Bureau’s shares an initial reaction following the Strategy’s publication on 10 March 2020. It includes a table with commentary on seven key areas we identified as crucial:

• Avoiding fossil fuel lock-in
• Maintaining ambition
• Good governance
• Ending industrial pollution
• Financing the right projects
• Making the ETS, carbon pricing and a carbon border adjustment effective
  Putting material efficiency and the circular economy first

We have also commented on two additional points:

• Following the ‘Energy Efficiency First’ principle
• Greening the grid